Topic
Collaborations
In January 2017 Kim Jones sent Supreme's box logo down the Louis Vuitton runway in Paris, and after that it was hard to argue that streetwear and luxury were separate businesses. Collaborations looks at partnerships that moved prices, careers or the rules of the industry. Virgil Abloh reworked ten Nike silhouettes for The Ten in 2017, exposing foam, stitching and labels that usually stay hidden. Jones brought KAWS into his first Dior men's show in 2018, with a giant flower-covered BFF figure at the center of the set. Jerry Lorenzo designed the Nike Air Fear of God 1, released in 2018. Ronnie Fieg's projects with Asics and New Balance helped turn Kith into a destination. Palace has worked with adidas for years, and Comme des Garçons PLAY put its heart logo on Converse Chuck Taylors. The stories look at who started each project and what each side got out of it, which is not always what the press release said. The plastic zip tie Abloh attached to each pair of The Ten became one of the most imitated details in sneakers.
Stories
Sneakers4 min read
ASICS Gel-Kayano 14 and the Second Life of a 2008 Runner
In 2008 it was the 14th edition of a stability shoe. Twelve years later Kiko Kostadinov pulled it from the archive because it looked faster than the one before it.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Sneakers4 min read
The adidas Superstar and the Shell Toe That Outran the Court
Built in 1969 to pry American basketball away from canvas, the shell toe found its real audience on the street. Then Run-DMC pulled the laces.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Culture4 min read
Aimé Leon Dore and Teddy Santis, From Queens to Mulberry Street
A curtained shop on Mott Street, a Greek café on Mulberry and a forgotten 1989 basketball shoe. How a Queens kid built New York's most watched quiet label.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Culture4 min read
Virgil Abloh, Off-White and the Age of Quotation Marks
An architecture graduate from Rockford put quotation marks on Nike, IKEA and Louis Vuitton. Five years on, the punctuation is still doing the talking.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Sneakers4 min read
New Balance 990 and the $100 Grey Runner That Never Left
In 1982 New Balance put a three figure price on a grey suede runner. Six versions later, the 990 is the shoe the fashion world borrowed from dads.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Culture4 min read
Kith and Ronnie Fieg, From Stock Boy to Store Empire
Three pairs of Asics, 252 of each, and a cereal bar. Ronnie Fieg turned a sneaker buyer's eye into one of the most watched retail brands in the world.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Culture4 min read
Nigo After Bape, Human Made, Pharrell and the Kenzo Years
He walked away from the ape and built something slower. Then LVMH handed him a Paris house, and the stock market came calling.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Sneakers4 min read
Nike Dunk History, From College Colors to the Pigeon Riot
The Dunk was a 1985 team shoe that basketball forgot. Skaters, Japanese collectors and Sandy Bodecker's Nike SB turned it into the most hunted sneaker of the 2000s.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Culture4 min read
Palace Skateboards, the Tri-Ferg and London's Cheekiest Brand
A squat near the Southbank, an impossible triangle and a sense of humor nobody in skating could copy. How Palace made London matter again.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Culture4 min read
JJJJound, the Montreal Mood Board That Became a Label
No captions, no logo worth mentioning, no noise. Justin Saunders turned a wall of saved pictures into one of the most trusted names in menswear.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Culture4 min read
Stüssy, the Laguna Beach Signature That Started Streetwear
A surfboard shaper signed his boards in marker, printed the scrawl on a T-shirt and accidentally drew the blueprint for every streetwear brand that followed.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Style4 min read
Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons and the Heart With Eyes
She studied aesthetics, not tailoring. In 1982 she showed Paris a collection called Destroy, and fashion has been arguing about her ever since.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Sneakers4 min read
The adidas Samba, From Frozen Pitches to Every Fashion Week
Adi Dassler built it so footballers could train on frozen ground. Seventy-odd years later a British prime minister had to apologize for wearing a pair.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Culture4 min read
KAWS and the Companion, How a Vinyl Toy Took Over Art
A Jersey City graffiti writer drew a cartoon with crossed-out eyes, sold it as a toy in Japan and ended up floating it across Victoria Harbour.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Sneakers4 min read
Nike Air Force 1 and the Baltimore Stores That Saved It
Nike killed the Air Force 1 in 1984. Three shops in Baltimore refused to let it go, and the shoe has barely been out of production since.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Sneakers4 min read
Salomon XT-6 and How an Ultra Shoe Ended Up in Paris
The XT-6 was built for runners racing a hundred miles through mountains. Then someone at Salomon found a box of them in the archive and changed the colors.
By Quiet Menace Editors /
Related Hubs
All TopicsStreetwearSneaker HistoryLuxury FashionJapanMusicSneaker ReleasesASICSadidasAimé Leon DoreNew BalanceNikeLouis VuittonKithPalaceVansStüssyDiorComme des Garçons