Nike teams up with CLAW Money on the legendary Nike Blazer
Nike has teamed up with New York graffiti artist and fashion designer CLAW Money for a limited release Blazer sneaker, to be released this summer at select retail accounts. The style will feature an eyelet pattern that is feminine, graphic, and subtly incorporates CLAW’s three taloned “markâ€. Colorways will include Zest/White and Pink Fire, Flame Red/White and Ice Blue, and Black on Black with Anthracite. “I thought the Blazer would be a perfect canvas since it’s the brand’s first sneaker for playing basketball.â€
The Blazer collaboration with CLAW Money is the first in a two-part series. Next, Nike and CLAW Money team up to launch a limited edition of the Vandal Hi debuting in October. You can score them at Limited Edition Singapore by end of July.
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Nike has a rich heritage of producing innovative products that have gone on to define performance within sport and style away from the court or field. The Nike Blazer is one shoe that has transcended the boundaries between sport and style, moving beyond the court and into the realm of street culture. This unique partnership between Nike and CLAW Money creates the next level of dialogue between Nike’s product and the very culture that has embraced it. Dialogue and insight from an outside perspective has always been at the heart of Nike innovation. Constant discourse with, and insights from, the world’s greatest athletes have continued to inform the design process. Acknowledging the culture they inspire, embrace and draw from is fundamental in respecting the product and creating forward looking design, be it for the ultimate runner or an urban lifestyle. “Nike and street art, have been teaming up since day oneâ€, says Jesse Leyva, designer for Nike. “The worlds of sports and street are close, but what for me was very interesting about this project with CLAW was a female eye towards the iconic Blazer
About the Nike BlazerThe first Nike Blazer was a pioneering shoe. Released in 1973, it took its name from the Portland Trail Blazers; as Nike’s first hoop shoe, it proved worthy of its name. A welcomed departure from its more clunky counterparts of the time, the Nike Blazer offered several features designed to improve performance basketball footwear for the game: fine grain leather, outsoles that offered greater traction, extra support, less weight. It wasn’t long before the simple white hi-tops with the elongated swoosh became de rigueur on and off the court, leading the way for Nike’s dominance as a basketball/lifestyle brand.
About CLAW Money
Queens, New York-born CLAW Money started writing graffiti in NYC in the early-1990s and has since sprayed her signature three-taloned claw symbol around the world. The reigning princess of a male-dominated world (she counts membership in graf crews PMS, TC5 and FC) is also a well-established fashion editor and designer of her eponymous clothing line that is sold in a selection of the world’s best boutiques. CLAW is the fashion editor at Swindle magazine and released a book called “Bombshell, the Life and Crimes of CLAW Money†this year with Powerhouse books.
Info and Visual via Nike