With around 250 premium-quality print pages of inspiring details from the footwear industry, this hardback book is one that could be recommended to anybody. The brilliance of this read can be recognised from its front cover which features an image of the Air Jordan 1 from the Jordan x Union collaboration in 2018, raised artistic lettering, and style lines above the shoe. Here you get a true feel of the book's quality before even opening it.
‘Collab Sneakers X Culture’ is all about the world of collaborative work within the footwear industry and it starts off with Jacques Slade’s foreword on why and how collaboration projects are carried out, how the book was developed, its general basis, and then 24 very enjoyable pages on the history of collaborations. The author of this book, Elizabeth Semmelhack, had interviewed the artists and designers and would ask them questions such as why and how their collaboration project(s) had come about, what inspired them during their design process, whether they were had the freedom to pick out a certain silhouette from the collaborative brand, what the meaning behind the shoe is, and many other interesting topics around their work. Not only does this read contain a great amount of fascinating information, but Elizabeth also made sure to include high-quality photographs of all the sneakers so that their qualities and key elements are well showcased in important and eye-catching angles.
The first collaboration that is mentioned in this book is Josef Waitzer’ x Adi and Rudi Dassler, two brothers who, in the early 1920s, had established the Gebrüder Dassler Sportschuhfabrik. This collaborative project involved creating performance running shoes that would perfectly match the needs of the German Olympian, Waitzer who would endorse the product and, as result, increase the number of sales of the spiked running shoes.
Going right to the very end of the book, the final collaboration that is mentioned is Les Benjamins x Puma on the ‘Thunder Disc’ sneaker model, something that shows tremendous development in the world of collaborative footwear design since the beginning that dates back almost a century.
Among the 83 projects mentioned in ‘Collab Sneakers X Culture’, some of my personal favourite collabs include the 50 Cent x Reebok G-UNIT G-XT, the Jeff Staple x Nike SB Dunk Low Pigeon, the KAWS x Jordan Brand Air Jordan IV Retro, the Union x Jordan Brand AJ1 NRG, and the Travis Scott x Jordan Brand Air Jordan IV Cactus Jack. These sneakers are respectively shown below.
The 50 Cent collaboration has really solid sneaker elements such as perforations in the upper, mesh components, and plastic eyelets while the colour choice allows for the bold silhouette to stay grounded on a strong sole unit. The following sneaker is a hugely iconic design that gets talked about even today.
The pigeon logo itself is enough to get sneakerheads hyped as this specific sneaker from 2005 has an average resale price of around £8,000 (based on StockX sales from the last four years) (StockX N/A, Nike Dunk SB Low Staple NYC Pigeon).
There’s no surprise why the KAWS AJ IV also has a high resell price because there’s really nothing like it. The artistic drawn features of the KAWS’ glove hand, the luxury suede upper, and icy soles that glow in the dark are the elements that make the sneaker especially unique and give it today’s average resale price of $1,582 (StockX N/A, Jordan 4 Retro Kaws).
The following sneaker is unlike any design that has been previously released from the Jordan Brand as its idea was to combine two different Jordan shoes into one with zigzag stitching and although it was originally only released in a flea market of LA, it managed to become on of the most iconic Air Jordan 1 collaborations ever and one of 2018’s most important sneaker designs (Elizabeth Semmelhack 2019).
Last, but definitely not least, is Travis Scott’s first AJ IV model which retailed for $225 and now resells for around $700 (StockX N/A, Jordan 4 Retro Travis Scott Cactus Jack). Inspired by the home colours of the Houston Oilers (Elizabeth Semmelhack 2019), Travis was able to represent his hometown in the design to make the blue suede Jordan sneaker something quite personal and unique. The public’s reaction to this shoe is a great representation of sneaker resell culture as certain stockers such as Flight Club have given it an asking price of up to $2940 (Flight Club N/A) and I can even remember the hype that was building up to the sneaker’s release back in 2018 as on the exact release day, I had a day shift at my first job, and, on my way there, I tested my luck on the Nike SNKRS app but Nike rather abruptly convinced me that I was saving my money with the classic “your entry wasn’t selected”.
Since this book includes such great detail of the collaborations and the reasoning behind the projects, it’s a read that I would recommend to anyone and I don’t think it really could have been written any better. All the content is very enjoyable to read through as the pages have a consistent layout theme and you can use the book’s yellow lace to mark what page you’re on and easily pick up where you left off. To finish this off, I’ll give ‘Collab Sneakers X Culture’ a 5/5 as a lot of my questions about collaborative work have been answered throughout Semmelhack’s book and I have enjoyed every single page of it.
If you are interested in giving it a read, it is available from amazon here.
Thank you very much for reading the blog and please feel free to leave any comments and feedback for me to read!
Bibliography
StockX N/A, Nike Dunk SB Low Staple NYC Pigeon, StockX, Viewed 27 March 2021, < https://stockx.com/nike-dunk-sb-low-staple-nyc-pigeon?country=GB¤cyCode=GBP&size=11&gclsrc=aw.ds&?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=OD-Segment-Sneakers-AdultSizes-International(UK)&utm_campaignid=1595987510&content=302441665638&keyword&gclid=CjwKCAjwr_uCBhAFEiwAX8YJgXP4bRRVLHQCd4oWfY1Fjhw2d3Z7VlLiYqu0-aoXAB0XTA_qQhXWPRoCccwQAvD_BwE>
StockX N/A, Jordan 4 Retro Kaws, StockX, Viewed 27 March 2021, <https://stockx.com/air-jordan-4-retro-kaws>
Elizabeth Semmelhack 2019, Collab Sneaker X Culture, Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., New York
StockX N/A, Jordan 4 Retro Travis Scott Cactus Jack, StockX, Viewed 27 March 2021, < https://stockx.com/air-jordan-4-retro-travis-scott-cactus-jack>
Flight Club N/A, TRAVIS SCOTT X AIR JORDAN 4 RETRO ‘CACTUS JACK’, Flight Club, Viewed 27 March 2021, <https://www.flightclub.com/air-jordan-4-retro-university-blue-black-803976>
Image Referencing
[1] Reebok International, LLC. (N/A). VETEMENTS X REEBOK, GENETICALLY MODIFIED PUMP. [image]. Available from: https://www.maxim.com/style/icon-sneaker-collaborations-2019-10 [Access date: 27/03/2021]
[2] Adidas. (N/A). Karl Hein – model waitzer – 1936, hammer throw boot worn at the Olympic games in berlin. [image]. Available from: https://www.designboom.com/design/adi-dasslers-first-shoes-an-exhibition-by-adidas/ [Access date: 27/03/2021]
[3] PUMA. (N/A). Thunder Disc Les Benjamines Sneakers. [image]. Available from: https://www.slamjam.com/en_GB/puma/thunder-disc-les-benjamines-sneakers/J126732.html?source=google_cpc&gclid=CjwKCAjwr_uCBhAFEiwAX8YJgdIK0ilOruQPtj3MrAm2XiNg8A86wWgD1Q0j-sh7Rh75q5kgbzM--hoCSvsQAvD_BwE [Access date: 27/03/2021]
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