In celebration of Alien Day on April 26th, Reebok will release a brand-new take on the Alien Stomper, the 1986 shoe that was designed specifically for the 20th Century Fox movie Aliens. After previous releases, which referenced Ripley, Bishop, the Alien Queen, and the Power Loader vehicle, this fourth release, shines the light on a different character: self-proclaimed ‘ultimate badass’ Private First Class William Hudson. As part of the United States Colonial Marines, Hudson, along with a team that includes the series main character Ellen Ripley, travels to planet LV-426 to investigate the loss of communication with a terraforming colony based on the planet.

Reebok designer Chris Hill is an avid fan of the Alien franchise and has worked on all of the Alien Stomper projects released by Reebok over the last five years. His passion for the series shows again in the incredible details and design found on this year’s release. “I know what it’s like to be a fan, and I think it makes a big difference when you buy a shoe and you know a lot of authentic passion went into creating it.”

Hill has always been a fan of Hudson as a character, and was excited to bring his part of the story to life. It also gave him the opportunity to try something different with the beloved silhouette. “We’ve tied other products to Ripley and Bishop in previous packs and I wanted to come at it from a different angle. We didn’t go away from the authentic details, but I wanted to make it more fashionable, not just a collector’s item.”

Fans might recognize that this version of the Alien Stomper looks a bit different than the ones found in earlier releases. Hill explains that he wanted to approach this project differently, and create something that’s really wearable but still close to the movie. “I would never want to sacrifice the authenticity of where this came from. It has all the details and Easter eggs for the true fans, but to the sneakerhead that might not be super into Aliens and doesn’t know all the details, it’s still a cool looking shoe.”

Named the Alien Stomper ‘Bug Stomper’, the sneaker is inspired by the United States Colonial Marines uniforms and ships. A brand new feature is the booty, which comes with a zipper and replaces the traditional tongue. The shoe features a ballistic nylon upper, and the iconic Reebok window has been replaced by a durable molded rubber label featuring the Weyland-Yutani logo. The back of the shoe is covered in a unique camouflage pattern, taken from the Marines’ fatigues. “It’s not a camo you can find anywhere,” Hill says. “Throughout the research process we found that the costume designer for the movie took an existing camo and tweaked it for the movie to make it a 1-of-1. So we duplicated that 1-to-1. “

Now onto the details. And, as Hill said, there are a lot of them. The upper of the shoes is identical on both the left and the right shoe, but each shoe has its own unique graphics and embroideries, inspired by the movie. The left shoe has a ‘Bug Stomper’ embroidery on the medial side, the name of the dropship that brought the crew to the surface of LV-426. The back of the ankle strap, which is removable, reads ‘We Aim By P.F.M.”, a reference to the graphic found on the second dropship, named Smart Ass, which rescues the survivors in the movie. The insole shows a skull graphic, which is taken from Hudson’s armor, and the custom webbing on the back of the shoe refers to the stars and stripes patch from the Marines’ uniforms. On the booty there is a United States Colonial Marines Screaming Eagle patch. On the inside of the forefoot strap you’ll read “Contents under pressure, dispose of properly”, which was painted on the back plate of Hudson’s body armor in the movie. The final detail on the left shoe are the acrylic hangtags that are laser etched, which look like the dog tags from the movie.