Riccardo Tisci’s New NBA-Inspired Nike Collab Drops This Month
That didn’t take long.
Just a day removed from teasing a new collaboration involving Nike and the NBA, former Givenchy creative director Riccardo Tisci’s newest footwear collaboration has been officially unveiled.
Here, the Italian designer takes cues from the NBA for a wide range of sporty apparel along with what is arguably the highlight of the collection, Tisci’s second Air Force 1 sneaker design.
For this collab, Tisci likened today’s NBA stars to mythical heroes, creating his own storyline and fictional team known as the Victorious Minotaurs.
“In the ’90s, basketball players became kind of like rock stars. But now they are more than rock stars,” Tisci said in a press release. “They’re superhuman — representative of historic mythology.”
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The range includes four pieces of men’s clothing, three women’s items and various accessories. Looks include Oxford button-down shirts, track pants, varsity jackets and T-shirts.
On the footwear front, Tisci returned to the canvas of the Air Force 1, a sneaker he calls his favorite. “I’m obsessed with the shoe. It’s very clean and pure, but at the same time elaborate,” says the designer. “It’s the shoe that best represents my style and my collaboration with Nike.”
Although this range isn’t an official collaboration with the NBA, the basketball league’s inspiration can be seen throughout, notably on the red, white and blue color palette of the Air Force 1, which borrows its colors from the NBA logo. The toe box also features a patch directly inspired by the league’s iconic silhouette logo.
Readers in the U.S. will be able to pick up the collection Thursday followed by a Paris release on Oct. 20 and a wider global launch on Oct. 21 from NikeLab retailers and online.
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