Vaquera Puts a Kitten Heel Under a Converse Skate Shoe

The Converse x Vaquera VX 1 Heel goes on sale October 27, 2026, and Dover Street Market Los Angeles and the DSMNY E Shop list it as available today. The shoe puts a kitten heel under the CS Pro 1, a padded Y2K skate shoe from the Converse archive. That makes it the opposite of the pair's first project: in 2025 the lift sat hidden inside a canvas Chuck Taylor, and in 2026 the heel is the whole shoe.

A Padded Skate Shoe Standing on a Kitten Heel

Converse builds the VX 1 Heel from the archival CS Pro 1 and replaces the flat skate sole with a kitten heel. The upper is suede with perforated accents over a padded mesh tongue. Converse's product listing adds retro eyelet covers and a translucent heel pull, and House of Heat describes wide laces threaded through molded eyerow covers.

The colorway on Converse's own pages is White, Black and Honey, style code A19133C. Nice Kicks lists a women's Black pair under A19134C, also for October 27. Converse's listing calls the CS Pro 1 a puffy Y2K skate shoe, and that profile is what a heel has to argue with. A skate shoe is wide at the toe and heavy through the tongue. A kitten heel is the opposite of both, so the silhouette reads as two arguments sewn together, which is the point of the pairing.

Suede is a sensible material for the job, since it holds its shape over padding more readily than the waxed canvas of the first collaboration, and the perforations ventilate a thick upper. Converse's pages give no heel height, so the pitch of the shoe is best judged from the campaign images.

Last Time the Wedge Was Hidden

The first Converse x Vaquera shoe was the Chuck Taylor All Star XXXHi Slouch Wedge, released in November 2025. It was a knee high rework in waxed canvas with a hidden wedge sole, a Vaquera ankle patch and a license plate at the heel of the left shoe, and it retailed for $205 in women's sizing. Vaquera's Chuck Taylor wedge was relisted on GOAT in July 2026, eight months after it launched.

Nike's press release on the start of the partnership describes two expressions of the Chuck Taylor All Star and puts the 2025 launch on vaquera.nyc and at Dover Street Market. Dover Street Market is on both ends of the partnership, then. The difference is the sole. The 2025 shoe started from a canvas Chuck Taylor with a look of its own, and the wedge only raised it. The VX 1 Heel starts from a different shoe, one made for skating, and the heel changes what the shoe is for.

Price follows the same direction. Footwear News reported $220 for the VX 1 Heel. House of Heat, Nice Kicks and Laced Entries report $250 for the US release, while Converse's European pages list 220 euros and its UK page 200 pounds. Either US figure sits above the $205 the Chuck wedge cost at launch, and both are women's sizing.

Kim Petras and the Miniature House

Kim Petras fronts the campaign, which Footwear News covered on October 22. Petras is photographed inside a miniature house, and the shoot plays with scale so the shoe reads as larger than life. Hypebae calls Petras a Grammy winning pop star, which puts a pop singer at the front of a campaign for a skate shoe.

Footwear News also ran a trend report this year on sneaker heels from Nike, Converse and Lacoste, which places the VX 1 Heel inside a category that major brands are now building toward. The CS Pro 1 base gives Converse an archive skate shoe with a puffy outline to build on.

Dover Street Market Los Angeles Keeps Filling Up

The VX 1 Heel is at least the fourth new arrival at Dover Street Market Los Angeles since September. Undercover's FW26 pieces reached the store that month, Brain Dead's new arrivals landed October 6, and Stüssy Tears followed on October 16. Brain Dead and Stüssy Tears also went to the DSMNY E Shop, and the VX 1 Heel is listed there too.

The store listing is Dover Street Market Los Angeles's own announcement, and no second outlet had confirmed it at the time of writing. The launch channels that Hypebae and Converse name are the Converse and Vaquera websites, with Converse's European pages opening sales at 9 AM CET and its UK page at 8 AM GMT on October 27. Laced Entries lists a US SNKRS draw at 10 AM ET for the White, Black and Honey pair.

October 27 is a Tuesday, and the shoe has three sales windows that day: Europe at 9 AM CET, the UK at 8 AM GMT and a US SNKRS draw at 10 AM ET. Dover Street Market Los Angeles lists it alongside them.