The collaboration came together in 10 months, which makes this design partnership one with the quickest turnaround in the company's history. However, at a press conference held in New York to kick off the Off-Campus programming, Abloh told the audience gathered that he attempted to make changes to the collection down to the very last minute. “I was thinking about the kids on the Hypebeast comments, being like, ‘His career is over—throw him off the ledge,’" he half-joked. "I literally was trying to change shoes three days ago…. That’s another bullet point that I want to communicate to young designers: Since nothing’s going to be perfect anyways, do it on the next one. Iterate. There are no wrong answers in design."
It's also the first time three different brands from the Nike, Inc. umbrella—the namesake, Jordan, and Converse—are all folded into a single collection, according to Andy Caine, vice president of Nike Footwear Design, who joined Abloh at the conference. Of all the sneakers in the line, the Off-White designer told the audience assembled for a press conference that "the Chuck Taylor was the shoe that required the most amount of emails."
At Off-Campus, Abloh explained how this project, in a way, was "career suicide": "Sneakers mean so much to so many different people; designers have such discerning taste, especially now—anyone who can like a button or comment is a critic," he explained. "My design career could’ve started and ended with this project." According to Abloh, the genesis of The Ten was actually the Jordan sneaker; "I just asked a naïve question: I get it, it’s an Air Jordan—but where’s the air bag?" he recalled. "So I grabbed an X-acto knife and punctured the sole." From there on, he began incorporating elements from his "tool kit": zip ties, illustrative text, quotation marks…all these visual signifiers Abloh uses as a means of finding a new way "to communicate in our post–American Apparel, super-ironic" society. "It’s a little bit closer to Céline. That’s the goal in life—Céline is everything."
Check out the rest of Nike x Virgil Abloh's "The Ten" collection, below.
Courtesy of Nike.
