What happens when you re-design an icon?

In a collaboration that re-imagines the “ultimate pop culture sneaker” Nike Air Force 1, streetwear giants Nike and Berlin-based label Acronym explore the motion of athletes putting on and removing shoes to create an all new design.

“Acronym is about autonomy. It's freedom to experiment and having a platform for ideas that we want to pursue,” explains the brand’s lead and Nike collaborator Errolson Hugh. Updating the putting it on/taking it off process and improving functionality was the most important element for him, with the collection drawing inspiration from military and industrial gear, as well as sportswear.

Skipping the mood boards and roughing up a design, the team took an engineer-like approach to improve technicality, particularly with the introduction of a zipper. “Technicality in fashion is something that, when we began Acronym years ago, was a completely foreign idea,” muses Hugh. “Nobody was really pursuing that or understood the need for it. At least not on a practical physical level. There were plenty of things that 'looked technical', but nothing that we thought really worked.”

Acronym are of a lucky few to have the opportunity to toy with the sneaker’s design and, admittedly, although Hugh was aware of the shoe’s impact on pop culture, he’d never worn one himself. “The advantage of that turned out to be that we could proceed in a radical way, because it wasn't a sacred object to us. If it would have been a shoe that I'd grown up with, or was wearing every day for the last 20 years of my life, I would probably have been afraid to do some of the things that we did,” he says, adding, “If you don't bring your ‘A’ game and deliver, you'll never live it down.”

In celebration of the collaboration, Dazed teamed up with London-based filmmaker Rollo Jackson to explore underground movements in a dystopian city, watch it here. The NikeLab Lunar Force 1 x Acronym® will be available September 17 at nike.com/nikelab and in select global retailers