Each pair will be sold with a Louis Vuitton pilot case in monogram-embossed orange leather, with a 3D tag in orange leather with a white swoosh on top. To coincide with the sale, the shoes and the sneaker trunk, which is also exclusive to the auction, will be exhibited in the lobby of Sotheby’s New York from Wednesday to Feb. 8.
The event will precede the commercial launch of the Louis Vuitton and Nike “Air Force 1” by Virgil Abloh, which will be available in limited quantities and exclusively through the Louis Vuitton store network, the company said.
Abloh, the founder of luxury streetwear brand Off-White and artistic director of men’s wear at Louis Vuitton, was involved in the beginning organization of the auction and its surrounding events. “The auction will take place in association with his family,” Vuitton said.
Abloh designed 47 pairs of Nike “Air Force 1” sneakers for the spring show, bringing together his two biggest brand partners in an homage to hip-hop culture. Vuitton said it plans to stage an exhibition of all the designs, made in its shoemaking workshop in Italy, with details to be revealed at a later date.
In the notes for the collection, revealed in a film called “Amen Break,” the brand said the partnership was inspired by the cover of the 1988 album It Takes Two by hip-hop duo Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock. It shows E-Z Rock wearing a Nike Air Force 1 basketball trainer altered with a swoosh adorned in the LV monogram.
“The cover embodied the hip-hop community’s early practice of hacking together high fashion and sportswear, sidelining diverging brands with equal reverence. A cultural symbol in its own right, today the Nike Air Force 1 serves as an objet d’art emblematic of self-generated subcultural provenance,” Vuitton said at the time.
To distinguish them from the original Nike Air Force 1, the sneakers were made with materials employed in Abloh’s Louis Vuitton men’s collections, and were styled with quote marks, a signature of Off-White, which has a highly successful collaboration with Nike.
The style in the Sotheby’s auction features the word “Air” written on the sole, and the French word “Lacet” on the laces. From Wednesday, in the lead-up to the auction, select individuals who inspired Abloh and the collaboration will receive pairs in exclusive colorways that will not be commercialized.
Abloh had established a long-term partnership with the Fashion Scholarship Fund to launch his scholarship fund, which was endowed with a personal donation from the designer and matching funds from his partners Evian, Farfetch, Louis Vuitton, New Guards Group and Nike. It supports the education of academically promising students of Black, African American, or African descent.
“As a Black designer, I found my way through school, and a mixture of creative projects, and I had to make a name for myself. That took a lot of years and a lot of meetings and a lot of runway shows and a lot of work, and I wanted to make that door open for a younger generation to sort of have a pathway that stays open,” Abloh told WWD at the time.
“I was a student on a campus that was largely not as diverse as the world is. And it’s important to set up this foundation specifically for Black students who may feel like in the industry of fashion, they don’t see many people that they can identify with,” he added.
Abloh said he named the fund “Post Modern” because recipients would also have access to career support services and mentoring.
