It has to be a tough task to impress the one and only Michael Jordan, but it sounds like Off-White designer Virgil Abloh did just that with his new Nike collaboration.
Ahead of the Off-White x Nike “The Ten” collection’s prerelease in September, Abloh and Kanye West associate, Tremaine Emory, spoke with Showstudio to explain why the collaboration is more than meets the eye.
“There’s three important things,” Emory, who is the co-founder of creative agency No Vacancy Inn, said of the collection. “There’s the personal aspect. How [Abloh] seeded them out and wrote on them for everyone. Then, there’s the design aspect. You know, how they’re made to kind of be worn in, and all the other aspects; the laces, the writing on the side, the no Nike check, the ’85’ right here … Everything about it. But then, there’s also Virgil’s journey as a graduate from the Kanye West university.”
But perhaps the most interesting reveal of the clip came as Emory reflected on Abloh’s Illinois upbringing, which sparked a personal connection to Jordan. According to Emory, Jordan’s personalized Off-White x Air Jordan 1s — which circulated on social media in June, around the same time celebrities like Drake were receiving customized pairs — weren’t any ordinary sneaker seeding.
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“I wish time travel existed, and you could go back and be like, ‘Virgil, 16-year-old, 18-year-old Virgil, you’re going to have a collab with Nike one day, with Jordans. And then Michael Jordan is going to text Nike and say I need a pair of those, and you gotta sign a pair to him,'” Emory said. “Just madness.”
The first Off-White x Nike “Revealing” drop will be prereleased in New York City on Sept. 9-13, London on Sept. 18-22, Milan on Sept. 21-25 and Paris on Sept. 26-30. The “Revealing” range includes the Air Jordan 1, Air Max 90, Air Presto, Air VaporMax and Blazer.
The full collection, which also includes the “Ghosting” collection made up of the Air Force 1 Low, Air Max 97, Converse Chuck Taylor, React Hyperdunk 2017 and Zoom Vaporfly, will see a wider release in November.
Watch the full video with Emory below.
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