Nike Blazer x Off-White™

Blazer x Off-White™

Virgil Abloh established his luxury streetwear brand, Off-White™, in 2013 as his entrepreneurial spirit took the groundbreaking designer to greater and greater success. Expressing his avant-garde sensibilities with bold, adventurous designs, Abloh built Off-White™ into one of the most highly regarded fashion brands in the world after just a few short years and soon caught the attention of other brands. In 2016, Nike reached out to Abloh in the hope of harnessing his creative genius to reimagine some of its heritage silhouettes. He had grown up a massive fan of the footwear brand and applied himself to the collaboration with astonishing enthusiasm, reworking ten sneakers from Nike’s back catalogue in less than a year to form a collection simply known as The Ten. Amongst these was the first Nike Blazer x Off-White™ – a modern version of the classic 70s basketball shoe.

The Off-White™ x Blazer Mid was launched in 2017 alongside four other sneakers that made up the first half of The Ten. Entitled REVEALING, this set was known for the accessible nature of its designs, each one having a hand-cut, reconstructed look. On the Nike Off-White Blazer, this manifests itself through the white leather upper, which incorporates intriguing cutaway sections on its heel and lateral flank. Captivating touches like the oversized black swooshes that swoop along the flanks and over the midsole, the fluorescent orange tag on the lateral heel and the characteristic text on the medial overlay all serve to elevate this unforgettable Blazer colourway.

Off-White’s first Nike collection was a resounding success, and the Blazer in particular seemed to capture the imagination of sneaker enthusiasts around the world. As a result, Abloh began working on several new versions of the Nike Blazer with Off-White™ almost immediately, and in 2018, three more colourways came out. One of these was an item in Nike and Abloh’s Queen apparel collection, which was put together for tennis superstar Serena Williams. This sneaker makes use of elegantly neutral tones, including Wolf Grey, Cool Grey and Pure Platinum, and has the same deep black swooshes as its predecessor. It also has a colourful sole unit with a smooth gradient that shifts through neon shades of pink, purple and blue, while its bright yellow zip tie displays the words “Queen of Queens, NY” as a nod to Serena’s incredible history at the US Open tennis tournament.

The other two editions from 2018 were released in time for that year’s Halloween celebrations, and as such, they each have a spooky theme. One is nicknamed All Hallow’s Eve and dons a light beige outer with vibrant orange swooshes that evoke the holiday’s pumpkin carving traditions. The other is called Grim Reaper for its use of much darker tones of black and charcoal grey across its upper. These dusky colours are offset by its white swooshes, the orange tag on its lateral heel and the similarly coloured stitching adorning its tongue.

Four years passed before Off-White™ and Nike returned to the Blazer, but what the pair produced in 2022 took the silhouette in a completely new direction. As he crafted the Nike Blazer Low x Off-White™, Alboh was inspired by a number of sporting silhouettes from Nike’s past, which he blended into one single design. This resulted in a sneaker with a composite outer made up of seemingly unrelated elements, giving it a radical, deconstructed look. One standout example of this style can be found on the shoe’s sole unit, which combines the Blazer’s textured rubber midsole with a protruding TPU heel piece taken from the Air Terra Humara. In addition, its upper is decorated with cut-out holes and a colourful cord lacing that weaves its way back and forth over the top of the foot. Unlike the mid-top, it has narrow swooshes that move down the flanks without straying over the midsole, and a textile strip that borders the upper and midsole. This distinctive low-top was released in two colourways: the University Red, with its white leather upper, yellow cord and vibrant red swooshes, and the Electro Green, whose mostly black outer has lime green cord snaking over it, along with blue and turquoise TPU pieces in the heel of the sole unit.

Over the years, Nike has teamed up with Virgil Abloh’s Off-White™ fashion label to create many eye-catching sneakers, but their work on the Nike Blazer x Off-White™ is some of their most celebrated to date. Abloh’s design expertise and passion for his craft led him to reinvent the Blazer in remarkable and unexpected ways, his innovative reimagining introducing the silhouette to a whole new generation of sneakers fans and securing the legacy of this humble court shoe.