Virgil Abloh Details Nike Off-White™ Process with New Book
Virgil Abloh is launching ICONS, a retrospective of the extensive collaboration between the designer and NIKE, Inc. The new coffee-table esque book explores Abloh’s investigative, creative process through documentation of prototypes, original text messages from Abloh to Nike designers, and treasures from the Nike archives.
Within ICONS, readers will find Swooshes sliced away from Air Jordans and reapplied with tape or thread, Abloh’s quotation marks trialed on Nike Air Force 1s and Converse All Stars cut into pieces says Nike. The effect is a behind-the-scenes witness to The Ten’s DIY approach, which gives each model in the Off-White™ c/o Nike collection its own unique touch.
“The foundation of my practice isn’t nearly the end result — it’s rigor and process of the logic. The archive is the paper trail of those artifacts,” Abloh said. “The ICONS book is, in a way, the only revealing lens to understand that the catalog of the 50-plus Nike shoes I have designed are in my mind ‘one shoe.’ One story.”
Nike says the book builds upon Abloh’s printed matter practice — archiving, documenting and storytelling through books and ephemera in service of preserving important cultural stories. As an extension of this practice, ICONS will enjoy an initial early release period through select Black-owned bookshops and independent retailers, demonstrating a shared belief in the vitality of print and the importance of local bookstores as hubs of community, culture and civic memory.
ICONS launches Jan. 22 via SNKRS in North America, and through Off-White™ and Canary Yellow. A wider release follows on Feb. 5 from TASCHEN.com and global retailers.
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