Feature: Novesta Star Master Beige Mono
Beautiful, this one. Beige mono means the colour runs all the way through: canvas upper, rubber sole, laces, the toe bumper — nothing breaking it up. It's the Star Master we end up recommending most, usually to someone who wants a plain trainer that isn't a white trainer.
The factory came first, the brand came later
Novesta's factory in Partizánske, in central Slovakia, dates back to the 1930s, when Jan Antonín Baťa built it as part of a purpose-made shoe town. For most of the last century it turned out rubber-soled work boots, army boots and gym shoes rather than anything you'd call fashion. It's still running on the same site.
Here's the part we didn't expect. The same plant makes rubber for car tyres and industrial products, and that's where the Star Master's sole colours come from — decades of mixing and pigmenting rubber at volume, applied to a shoe.
You can see how it's made, which is the point
The sole isn't glued on. It's vulcanised, pressed onto the upper under heat until the two bond, and the seam where the rubber meets the canvas comes out slightly differently every time. Run your eye along the edge of a pair and you'll see the line wobble, which is how you know it's a real one.
Worth knowing before you order: they're heavier than most canvas trainers. Natural rubber is denser than the synthetic sort and you feel it in the hand. It doesn't bother us, but it does surprise people.
The insole lifts out, and the canvas pairs can be washed by hand with soap and a brush.
What Novesta says about the materials
The brand says the Star Master upper is GOTS-certified organic cotton and the sole is VFCS-certified natural rubber from verified suppliers, and that the model carries PETA's Approved Vegan mark. Novesta also says its factory is certified to ISO 14001, and that rubber offcuts are milled back into new sheets rather than binned.
What we'd wear it with
Beige mono is easier than white and less severe than black. It sits well with washed denim, cream or oatmeal knitwear, and anything in the same tonal family — the whole point is that nothing on the shoe interrupts the outfit. It's good under a floaty dress in summer, which is where we first fell for it.
This and the rest of the range are in our Novesta collection.