Nike has officially unveiled Louis Vuitton men’s artistic director, Kim Jones x NikeLab Air Zoom LWP Collection.
The collection brings back the classic Nike Air Zoom LWP that originally debuted back in 1995. Kim Jones gives the classic runner a modern makeover, while keeping some of the shoe’s original details.
Look for the entire Kim Jones x NikeLab Packable Sport Style Collection to release exclusively at NikeLab stores (not online) on July 23rd. Check out the footwear offering below as well as a brief interview from Nike and Jones.
What are your earliest memories of Nike?
Being obsessed with having to have a pair of Nikes when I was about 13, or maybe even 12, and just nagging my parents to buy them for me. I saw them and immediately wanted them.
Did your original interest in sneakers come from a street-cultural standpoint or a sport standpoint?
I was cycling a lot when I was a kid so that was a lot of it. I had them for sports and they looked cool as well. Also I was a straight-edger for a while and we were all obsessed with Jordans. Everyone would go to buy their Jordan Vs. We were super excited about it and would fight over every color, because we didn’t want to have the same ones. It was typical teenage guys being obsessed. I had a group of friends who I used to hang out with all the time and we all had the same size feet, which was quite useful, so we’d all just swap stuff over.
Do you have any of them in your archives now?
I have about 500 or 600 pairs of sneakers in my archives, probably. I’ve got them in my house in London and just lots and lots of cupboards in Paris. I’ve got lots of Jordans and tons of pairs of Huaraches. When they first came out, I bought them in bulk because I loved them so much.
What is about sneakers in particular that interests you?
Now I’m interested in them because of the technology that goes into them and how they are developing so quickly and becoming really proper, serious product design. The technology side of it is the thing I really, really like — how it leads the fashion side and that becomes a lifestyle.
The NikeLab Air Zoom LWP x Kim Jones marries inspiration from an original Zoom 95 upper with Air Max 1 last. Why did you select these particular silhouettes?
I like the fact that it has come from an old shoe but has become a completely new shoe. It took quite a few go-s to get it right. At first it was too chunky and then it was too skinny. I was thinking about a shoe that I would really like to wear and be proud of. To have a Nike sneaker is an amazing thing. It’s a real honor.
Are there any other sneakers from the Nike archives that you’d like to reimagine?
There are a few, actually… a Footscape would be interesting to work with, or just taking a few of my favorites and doing that mix-and-match and cut-and-paste to get to something new. So you are taking something that was at the forefront at its time, then bringing it back in a different way so it’s at the forefront of now, because the technology has changed so much and everything is so light and comfortable. People wear sneakers all the time now, so comfort and practicality are the key things. That thing of “time is luxury” is also important to think about. If products can make things easier for you and more simple, that’s important in life — as well as aesthetics, obviously.
