A project that redefines footwear design
Through Virgil Abloh. Nike. ICONS, Taschen offers an immersive dive into the designer's world, revealing the inner workings of a project that has redefined the codes of footwear design and established the sneaker as a true work of contemporary art.
A bold reinterpretation of Nike icons
In 2016, sportswear giant Nike and visionary designer Virgil Abloh teamed up to create a groundbreaking sneaker collection that showcased ten of the Oregon brand’s most iconic models. Called The Ten, the ambitious project reinterpreted icons like the Air Jordan 1, Air Max 90, Air Force 1 and Air Presto, injecting new energy into sneaker culture.
When the sneaker becomes a work of art
Abloh’s designs, instantly recognizable by their unique cultural cachet, were based on a combination of technical ingenuity and bold artistry. Reimagining original designs through lettering, collage, and novel shaping techniques, he played with the shoes’ structural elements to give them new, often ironic, meaning. Inspired by the playfulness of Dadaism, architectural theory, and avant-garde happenings, he dissected the features that made each sneaker instantly recognizable, before deconstructing them to create a work of industrial art. Each pair became a ready-made sculpture, a wearable design piece where experimentation trumped convention.
Between experimentation, archives and craftsmanship
Virgil Abloh. Nike. ICONS, published by Taschen, delves into this artistic and experimental approach. It documents Abloh’s creative process as both designer and investigator through prototype sketches, messages exchanged between him and Nike designers, and treasures from the brand’s archives. We discover fascinating details: Air Jordan swooshes cut out and reapplied with tape or thread, Abloh’s famous quote marks on Air Force 1s, and meticulously deconstructed Chuck Taylor All Stars. This book reveals the behind-the-scenes of a collaborative work where empiricism and craftsmanship blend with extraordinary ingenuity, giving each model its own identity in the Off-White™ c/o Nike collection.
A Swiss binding to embody the aesthetics of the project
This lexicon of deconstruction is reflected in the design of the book itself: the Swiss binding, which leaves the spines of the notebooks exposed, illustrates the creative process and underlines the materiality of the book. By tracing the dialogue established between Abloh and Nike, this book celebrates both the power of design and the importance of print as a medium of transmission.
A conceptual exploration by Nike and Abloh
For its creation, Nike and Abloh collaborated with the prestigious London studio Zak Group, imagining a book structured in two distinct parts. The first, in the form of a catalog, traces the visual history of sneakers and their evolution in contemporary culture. The second, a true conceptual toolbox, defines the people, places, objects, ideas, materials and contexts that shaped this exceptional project. The texts by Nicholas Schonberger (Nike), the author Troy Patterson, the historian and curator Glenn Adamson as well as Virgil Abloh himself place this collaboration in the history of design and fashion. Finally, the foreword by Hiroshi Fujiwara places this project in the continuity of the innovative collaborations that have marked Nike's history.
- Authors: Virgil Abloh
- language: english
- 352 pages
| Description | Imperial | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Width | 10" | 25.5 cm |
| Height | 11.7" | 29.7 cm |
| Weight | 5 lbs | 2.3 kg |
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