Earlier this year, designer Martine Rose penned a “love letter to London” with her SS19 show, shutting off a cul-de-sac in the north of the city for a runway show slash street party. Now, the London-born-and-based designer is enlisting London Steve (who lives in that same cul-de-sac), a 19 year old Nike trainer enthusiast, and a photography student who races pet ferrets to act as the London stockists for her new Nike collab, sold on Craigslist.
The collaboration itself is typically streetwear-orientated, but aims to create something unique by fusing English and American sports heritage. “We took a silhouette based on a very British tracksuit that you might get in JD Sports,” Rose tells Vogue. “Then, we created a trainer inspired by Nike’s Monarch style, which is a very middle-America-dad trainer.”
In the same interview, Rose also details how she and Nike looked at athletes’ bodies to inform the collection, wondering how Michael Jordan’s tracksuit might be altered to fit someone of more average proportions and examining moulds of athletes’ feet.
To get their hands on the pieces, it seems buyers will have to contact the relevant stockists and travel to their chosen location to collect. It’s a pretty novel idea. “It’s like the Wild West – totally uncharted territory,” says Rose. “We have no idea how it will go.” There’s no release date just yet, but it’ll be interesting to find out.