Virgil Abloh announces Nike collection, furniture collab

By

Kate Dingwall

Published
Feb 9, 2017

Off-White designer Virgil Abloh teased a number of upcoming projects this week during his “Young Architects Can Change the World Without Building Buildings” lecture at Columbia University. Among the biggest news: Off-White will be working on a collaboration with Nike, as well as a collection with a yet-to-be-named furniture designer.

To announce the Nike partnership, Abloh threw a sample pair of the collaborative sneakers into the audience for one lucky audience member. The sneaker, as photographed on social media, was a cream mid-rise "Blazer" shoe with a navy Nike swoop. The shoe featured text on either side of the shoe, stating "Off-White c/o Nike". This strays from Off-White's signature diagonal stripe logo, with Abloh noting, “you would have imagined diagonal stripes, which is great, and exactly what I won’t do [with this Nike collaboration.]"

During the two-hour lecture, the designer declared that he plans to continue his presence in the furniture market. After displaying some of his self-designed furniture at Art Basel this year (Abloh is a trained architect, graduating from the Illinois Institute of Technology), he will be opening an exhibit in 2019 at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

When asked by an audience member about a furniture collaboration, Abloh hinted at an upcoming furniture partnership with a lower-priced brand, stating, "Imagine a super-awesome design furniture company. I'm doing a collab with them."

Abloh also announced that the Off-White brand will be exploring the publishing world, with the launch of Fine Press publishing. Fine Press will release a photo book entitled “Woman”, created in collaboration with male model and photographer Luka Sabbat. The publishing arm is also working on releasing a 400-page Abloh-produced book, with no released launch date as yet.

Despite the discussion of the upcoming projects, the industry is left wondering if Abloh will be taking over the role of creative director at Givenchy, after Riccardo Tisci left the post earlier this month. Abloh refused to comment on the matter.