LOUIS VUITTON NIKE AIR FORCE 1 designed by VIRGIL ABLOH

Luxury house LOUIS VUITTON announced a series of events in celebration of the release of the Louis Vuitton and Nike “Air Force 1” designed by the late Virgil Abloh. Nine editions of the sneaker, first presented as part of the brand’s Spring-Summer 2022 Men’s Collection, will be launched globally In June 2022, through an inclusive digital activation. The selected editions include White mid-top in Monogram embossed plain calf leather; White low-top in Monogram embossed plain calf leather; Black low-top in Monogram embossed calf suede; White and Gym Green low-top in a trompe-l’oeil canvas executed in printed Monogram leather and Monogram embossed calf leather; White and Comet Red low-top in a trompe-l’oeil canvas executed in printed Monogram leather and Monogram embossed calf leather; White and Team Royal Blue low-top in a trompe-l’oeil canvas executed in printed Monogram leather and Monogram embossed calf leather; Gold low-top in Monogram embossed metallic canvas; Silver and multi-colour patchwork low-top in Monogram embossed calf suede and monogram embossed metallic canvas; and Sail and Multicolor mid-top in Damier and leather with an Azur graffiti print. The sneakers will be made available in Nike sizes ranging from 3.5 to 18 (cover mid-tops – 2,500 EUR and low-tops – 2,000 EUR).

The exhibition Louis Vuitton and Nike “Air Force 1” by Virgil Abloh will take place at the Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse in New York City, from May 20th to May 31st, 2022. It will feature all 47 editions of the Nike ‘Air Force 1’, displayed in physical and virtual form. Coinciding with the exhibition, a number of corresponding installations will take place around New York City and the world.

“Taking its point of departure in his philosophies, the exhibition Louis Vuitton and Nike “Air Force 1” by Virgil Abloh offers an in-depth view of the sneakers the designer created in the summer of 2021 through his own inimitable lens. The exhibition set to take place at Brooklyn’s Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse will be wrapped in a vivid orange, and adorned with a logo fusing those of Louis Vuitton and Nike. A grid-like structure, it is the blueprint for the imaginary city erected within the space, seen from above. Walking around the exhibition, guests meander a giant version of the logo reflected in a mirrored ceiling. They are surrounded by 3D-printed statues akin to the ones Virgil Abloh built during his tenure at Louis Vuitton, framed by walls painted in the clouds characteristic of his show sets and campaign imagery.

Celebrating its 40th year, the Nike “Air Force 1” was designed by Nike in 1982 and is one of the most successful shoes ever created. For his Louis Vuitton Spring-Summer 2022 collection, Men’s Artistic Director Virgil Abloh collaborated with Nike on 47 bespoke ‘Air Force 1’ editions, which were crafted in the Maison’s Manufacture in Fiesso d’Artico, Venice, Italy fusing the sneaker’s classic codes with the insignia and finest materials of Louis Vuitton. On the album It Takes Two from 1988, DJ E-Z Rock was immortalised wearing Nike “Air Force 1” sneakers altered with a Nike Swoosh adorned in the Louis Vuitton monogram by the Harlem designer Dapper Dan. The cover embodied the hip-hop community’s early practice of hacking together high fashion and sportswear.” – from Louis Vuitton