worked on these the past few days, they're now completed.
as I said back in the poll for this set, I've reused parts of my previous converse sneakers model and turned those into high tops for this particular set. I used this opportunity to also fix some mistakes in the original model like the mirrored text on the back of the sole that I messed up in the original model. That being said, under the sole, I kept the mirrored UVs for higher texel density since you're not going to look under too often to see it and I'd rather just have crispier textures as a trade off.
since some of the work was done previously, I also used the extra time to optimize the low poly model a bit more when compared to the original. Despite having more in it, it's about 10k-ish tris lower I believe with basically no visible quality loss. I could've gone a bit lower actually, there's still quite a lot of unnecessary verts in the sole and even in the laces, but I kept them for a cleaner normal bake.
for looks, I went with leather, purely to differentiate more from the original release, which, even the texture pack for these were all cloth versions. I originally intended to have the strap be cloth basically looking similar like the belts from the top to tie things together, maybe have white laces/sole, but ultimately decided to go with the sleek, all blacked out leather look.
one piece from this set remains, the torn jean shorts, those are next.