HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW: NIKE AIR VAPORMAX MOC 2 X ACRONYM®

Nike is excited to announce the cutting edge Nike Air VaporMax x ACRONYM is dropping in its first colour way on Air Max Day, 26th March, exclusively at Supply Store for $280.

The sneaker is a collaboration between Nike and Berlin based streetwear brand, ACRONYM; a company whose philosophy is one that focuses on form, function and unwavering attention to detail. Their futuristic style is the perfect match to Nike’s innovative designs, making the Nike Air VaporMax x ACRONYM the perfect fusion of the two brands.

ACRONYM designer Errolson Hugh has worked with Nike to evoke the art of disguise and a toast to the unexpected future, keeping in line with the pioneering nature of the Nike VaporMax line.

Dropping in three distinct colour ways, Johnny’s Icy Passage, The Illusional ‘Ja and the Thirsty Bandit, the Nike Air VaporMax x ACRONYM boasts a flyknit upper and laceless design. Each colour way features a unique came print style (patterned with A’s) in bold textures, and a supportive sole designed for maximum comfort.

Errolson Hugh, has worked on three previous Nike models: the Lunar Force 1 (2015), much-lauded Presto (2016) and AF1 Downtown (2017). Each of these introduced a plausible solution to solve a discrete functional problem (for example, the Lunar Force 1 incorporated an easy-entry zip component).

He took a slightly different approach for his fourth shoe with the brand, a Nike Air VaporMax Moc 2. “There is absolutely nothing retro about it. It’s so forward,” he says of the shoe. “The physical aspect of it, once the laces are removed and with the elastic tongue…there is not really much that we felt we wanted to do functionally because it’s great.”

Instead, he and his team pivoted from their typical design process and considered the shoe “as a visual project.” They contemplated graphic applications conveying aggression and speed. And within these experiments, considered just how far they could possibly push while still keeping the shoe wearable.

Eventually, Hugh landed on a unique take on camouflage he built off his brand’s wordmark. “The patterning is basically the A from Acronym. It’s the original shape, and then it just gets turned into a grid. Each of the intersecting lines of the A inside the square makes the surface, and we just delete and inverse the various surfaces that result from those intersections. It makes for a kind of progression that you get these surprising shapes out of,” he says.

Through trial and error, it emerged that printing it onto the finished knit upper was the best application. This is because the graphic further deforms as the Flyknit is stretched over the last and attached to the VaporMax outsole. The resulting look is thus simultaneously arresting and covert — apropos of Hugh’s legacy of bold silhouettes replete with hidden detailing.