John Elliott x Nike Air Force 1 Low “Friends and Family” to Debut at ComplexCon

Not that long ago, John Elliott was writing letters to Nike in hopes of one day designing sneakers for the brand. Fast forward to years later and Nike is asking him to do just that. Following the success of his Nike Vandal collaboration, Nike asked John to produce an Air Force 1 in honor of the shoe’s 35th anniversary. The offer, though, came with a stipulation.

John was tasked to re-imagine the shoe using its traditional white-on-white canvas. No other color was allowed. Thus, his approach to the shoe was by aesthetically altering its dimensions. He smartly reduced layers in an effort to evoke shadow, doubling up the overlays and cutting the Swoosh out of the foxing and replacing it with pebbled leather underneath. Other subtle details like the reduced eyelets and double layered tongue add depth and presence to the classic design.

This John Elliott x Nike Air Force 1 Low will be available only to friends and family at ComplexCon this weekend.

FINALLY…Beyond excited to share these!!! About a year ago, we had the opportunity to work on the 35th anniversary project for what is in my opinion the most iconic shoe ever, the @nike Air Force 1. There was one stipulation: it had to be all white. When tasked with working on such a culturally significant silhouette under the restriction of keeping it in an all white palette, I wanted to make sure that we included our DNA in the silhouette and tried to craft details that could potentially create color. To me the only way to do that was by adding and reducing layers to create shadows. Since this shoe is so rare lets run through some of what makes it special: Each overlay is doubled up to add dimension. We die-cut the swoosh out of the foxing and quarter and put pebbled leather underneath to create the appearance of it going inward and to create shadows. We took this layering theme and applied it to the smallest details – everything from a layered deubré, double lace keepers, layered aglets, and a double (layered) tongue. We then reduced small details like eyelets and vents down to a bead size. The finished product is something that I am excited to own and share with friends and family members this weekend at ComplexCon. ??@nikesportswear

A post shared by JOHN ELLIOTT (@johnelliottco) on Nov 3, 2017 at 5:41pm PDT