At the beginning of the new year, TASCHEN launched a blockbuster book, Virgil Abloh. Nike. ICONS" became one of the most high-profile publishing projects in the world in 2021. Virgil Abloh and Louis Vuitton, founders of the Off-White™ brand and artistic director of menswear at Louis Vuitton, reinvented Nike's 10 classic sneakers from Air Jordan 1 to Air Presto with unparalleled creativity through the collaborative project "The Ten", completely subverting the fashion culture of sneakers. The new book takes us through this original design project and Virgil Abloh's highly researched creative process, interpreting the idea that "every pair of shoes is an industrial design work, a ready-made sculpture, and a wearable object".
In 2016, sports brand giant Nike teamed up with fashion designer Virgil Abloh to create a sneaker collection, "The Ten," a tribute to the Oregon-based company's 10 most iconic sneakers. Through the "The Ten" project, the two sides have given a new look to classic shoes such as Air Jordan 1, Air Max 90, Air Force 1 and Air Presto, pushing the sneaker culture to the trend highlands again.
Virgil Abloh's new design provides insight into this original sneaker project and brings out the dazzling charm of trend culture. Using text, satirical labels, collages and engraving techniques, Abloh borrows language and engraving elements to build new meanings for these classic shoes. Influenced by Dadaism, architectural theory and avant-garde art events, Abloh parsed out the iconic features of each shoe, deconstructed it and then artistically reorganized it, making each pair of shoes an industrial design at the same time a ready-made sculpture and a wearable object.
《Virgil Abloh. Nike. ICONS traces Abloh's highly researched creative process through a record of the prototype shoe, the original text message abloh provided to Nike's designers, and the treasures in the Nike archive. We'll find Swoosh "ticks" cut from air Jordan rejoined with tape or stitches; Abloh's quote-marked classic text printed on the Air Force 1; and All Stars, which was cut to pieces. Through such a unique behind-the-scenes perspective, we were able to witness how Ablok gave each shoe in the Off-WhiteTM c/o Nike collection a unique personality in a DIY approach. In addition to telling the cultural history of sneakers, this book also presents the past print advertisements for sneakers in the Nike Archive, which is a valuable bibliography not only for sneaker collectors but also those engaged in the marketing advertising industry.
The book also captures Abloh's unique way of working in this collaboration and reaffirms the weight of the physical book. In terms of book design, Nike and Abloh collaborated with Zak Group, a renowned London-based design studio with extensive experience in design art books, to conceive of this two-part compendium, namely: a catalogue and a concept reference book. The first part presents the visual culture of sneakers; the second part defines key people, places, objects, ideas, materials, and scenes in progress on the project. Articles written by Nike's Director of Global Editorial Communications, Nicholas Schonberger, fashion columnist Troy Patterson, curator and historian Glenn Adamson, and designer Virgil Abloh himself illustrate the collaboration in the history of fashion and design. Renowned Japanese fashion designer and godfather Hiroshi Fujiwara of Riharajuku also wrote the foreword to the book and included the project among Nike's partners.
- END -
![Agni Ambition NAVI2-1 Vitality s1mple wins BLASTMVP[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)