![\"virgil](\"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/magefan\/virgil-Abloh-x-nike-the-ten.jpg\")
<\/h3>\n\u00abMost of the creative decisions were made in the first three hours.\u00bb<\/p>\n
Those words come from Virgil Abloh, speaking on the time spent designing Nike’s release of “The Ten”. Yes, he really said that, and it’s completely believable. Sure, one imagines that such a project would take weeks, if not months, of ongoing work to nail down a creative direction.<\/p>\n
After all, working with Nike is the lifelong ambition of so many titans in the fashion world. Add to that the fact that this was Abloh’s first real project with the Swoosh, and you’re right to be expecting some more time spent.<\/p>\n
<\/h3>\nExcept, this is definitely not the first time that Virgil Abloh has worked for Nike<\/strong>. Yes, The Ten is the first official collaborative release between the two parties. But, The Rockport, Illinois, native has been working on Swoosh designs for a long time.<\/p>\n His earliest memories include a fascination with Jordan, both the man and his shoes. To the eclectic founder of Off-White, Michael Jordan represented nothing less than a superhero.<\/p>\n As an Illinois resident, it’s easy to imagine how strong that sentiment must have been for Abloh. This feeling also led to forming a design foundation.<\/p>\n Being a teenager in the 90s meant that Abloh was exposed to the budding hoops sneaker scene the Nike was leading. Additionally, he was influenced by cues such as graffiti as well as album covers.<\/p>\n Abloh fell so hard for Nike’s aesthetic at the time that he made a habit of sending his own designs to Nike early on. Of course, he hadn’t yet ascended to his current status and would largely be met with no response. Then, in 2016, he takes a crucial trip to Nike’s campus in Beaverton, Oregon.<\/p>\n To be sure, this wasn’t some PR-infested tour through the technologically advanced headquarters. Importantly, it was a realization of Abloh’s dream to be within the design hive of the world’s most famous sportswear brand.<\/p>\n Here, he could relive that initial spark that Nike facilitated back in his early days. He could also make something new and add to the brand’s legacy in the industry.<\/p>\n In that light, his first target was quite fitting. After his very first meeting with Nike, Abloh set his sights on an icon of both hoops and hip-hop: the Air Force 1<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n That year, he decides to take an X-Acto knife to a Blacked out pair of the Air Force 1 Low. He reforms the shoe, exposing design aspects that were previously reserved for the brand’s tech team.<\/p>\n He also takes a marker and writes all of the sneakers<\/a><\/strong>. As a reminder, this is all happening during his trip to Nike HQ.<\/p>\n It’s a startling visual: during his first meeting with a brand he’s fawned over for decades, Abloh essentially takes apart one of Nike’s most important shoes. The brazenness wouldn’t go unrewarded.<\/p>\n The Nike heads loved it and Abloh would make a few more one-offs in that design for his staff to wear at 2016’s Design Miami.<\/p>\n To put it mildly, the man left an impression. Nike saw his designs as the deconstructive expression of the Off-White founder’s unique vision. They wanted more. Abloh went on to handmake twelve individual pairs of the Air Force 1 in this style, celebrating the iconic shoe.<\/p>\n The result was a set of exposed design cues, such as the foam on the AF1’s robust tongue, and thick stitching around the lateral Swoosh. Of course, Abloh also includes writing on the shoe that celebrates Nike’s Beaverton roots.<\/p>\n It’s a remarkable achievement, to so quickly reinvent a sneaker and give it the premium look of a handmade piece of footwear. But, it was nothing new for Abloh.<\/p>\n Before Off-White, his Pyrex brand had made a name out of quick design turnarounds for handmade pieces. Now, it was time to take that breakneck speed and turn it in the direction of a Nike collab.<\/p>\n In many ways, this is what directly inspires the release of The Ten. Nike witnessing Abloh’s craft and efficiency, along with his vision, first-hand help convinces them.<\/p>\n Yet, this challenge would prove compellingly different. The Ten involved getting Abloh’s take on ten of Nike’s most iconic models<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n The Swoosh eventual selection of these shoes involves Abloh going for ten sneakers he saw as literal works of art. In fact, he compares them to historic pieces such as the Mona Lisa.<\/p>\n The shoes are divided up into two separate collections: “REVEALING” and “GHOSTING.” Each played on a theme that was both visually and functionally important to Abloh’s work, which fit well with his mission: he wanted to show off how brilliant he thought Nike was.<\/p>\n The “REVEALING” portion was all about the man’s take on deconstruction. It includes the Air Jordan 1<\/strong><\/a>, Air Presto<\/strong><\/a>, Air Max 90<\/strong><\/a>, Air Vapormax<\/strong><\/a>, and Air Blazer Mid<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Nike’s sneakers were a fascination not just because of how they looked, but everything was put together. In that light, Abloh took out the X-Acto knife once more. He cuts each shoe’s tongue to make sure the foam was revealed.<\/p>\n He would also reshape Swoosh branding placements, even removing some entirely. This was enhanced via the addition of bright color tabs of Orange and Blue placed on subtle spots.<\/p>\n Furthering this theme was a set of smaller design additions. Elements such as the laces and midsole were labelled with a print that was intentionally literal in its description.<\/p>\n This would go on to be a signature element of the collection for Abloh. All of these things add up to perhaps the best expression of the deconstructed sneaker phenomenon.<\/p>\n It all seemed rather complicated and visually dense, but Abloh wanted the exact opposite. The designer wanted to make sure he “opened up” each shoe’s design so that its inspiration and build was available for all to see.<\/p>\n He wanted you to believe “you could also make this shoe.” The “GHOSTING” section of this release had to do with furthering the aforementioned “REVEALING” format.<\/p>\n The idea was still to show the shoe for every part it was made of. This scheme was particularly difficult when you consider that some of the models in questions had yet to release by the time Abloh was allowed to work on them.<\/p>\n For example, the Vapormax was still in its final stages of testing when The Ten was initiated. This, combined with the incredible time of turnaround on this project, proved to be quite the complication.<\/p>\n For Abloh, it wasn’t so complicated. The newer shoes only inspired him further as he had a firsthand experience with the futuristic tech.<\/p>\n Sneakers such as the Nike VaporFly and Hyperdunk React blew him away. Abloh knew that Nike had continued to put in the extensive research and craftsmanship that they had always been known for.<\/p>\n He saw each of these future releases as a testament to the past informing Nike’s future. As such, his decision for the “GHOSTING” section involved the use of a translucent film on the shoe’s uppers.<\/p>\n In this way, the history of Nike’s past was just as exposed as its bright future. Oh yeah, and all of this was done at the breakneck pace of ten months.<\/p>\n Each shoe took a month and that was it, on to the next one. After the creative meetings – again, usually taking only three hours – Abloh and crew took two to three days for design work.<\/p>\n In fact, the Air Jordan 1 reportedly took just one design session to finish up, with Abloh crediting his “dream-like” state of work.<\/p>\n There has been much said and written about Virgil Abloh’s work with Nike. To this point, The Ten seems to be cemented into a sort of unspoken sneaker Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n Of course, it’s a tough case to argue against when you put the collection in context. Yet, not quite enough is said about how little the shoes were actually changed.<\/p>\n As far as collaborative projects with Nike go, some of the most remarkable have been ones that altered something, made something new. Off-White’s founder went in a different direction.<\/p>\n Each piece of The Ten involves doing the opposite of adding something new: emphasizing what’s already there. When Abloh verbally expresses his adoration for Nike’s shoes, he backs it up with his approach to design.<\/p>\n Each piece is featured to expose even more of its build, an insistence from Abloh that every element is worthy of recognition. What’s more, even the slightest details were dressed in premium materials, including high-grade leathers and translucent uppers.<\/p>\n The results are worthy of a place in a museum. They also offer something of a revisionist take on sneaker design.<\/p>\n Much like art in general, coming up with something new and bold seems to pale in complexity to re-imagining what’s already there.<\/p>\n Image Credit: Nike<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reinventing classics with Virgil Abloh x Nike \u00abMost of the creative decisions were made in the first three hours.\u00bb Those words come from Virgil Abloh, speaking on the time spent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5965,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5964","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-noticias"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5964"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=5964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A Trip to the Palace<\/h3>\n
Taking the Leap<\/h3>\n
Setting it Up<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/magefan\/virgil-Abloh-x-Nike-vapormax.jpg\")
<\/h3>\nBreaking Down<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/magefan\/virgil-abloh-x-nike-the-ten-air-max-90.jpg\")
<\/h3>\nHype Unseen<\/h3>\n
Context<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/magefan\/virgil-abloh-x-nike.jpg\")
<\/p>\n