JUNYA WATANABE NIKE HIKE
JUNYA WATANABE X NIKE
Comme Des Garçons and American sportswear giant Nike have a long history of collaboration. In 2004, Junya Watanabe designed a number of t-shirts and sweaters utilising historic Nike graphics, and motifs of his Comme des Garçons sub-line, such as the bretton stripe in neutral colour-ways. Lightly faded graphic elements and curled raw hemlines create the feeling of real used sportswear, as though previously worn by athletes and altered with a DIY approach.
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Watanabe revived the classic Nike ‘Hike Man’ logo, developed in the mid to late 1970’s, featuring a burly and bearded hiker, sporting a pair of Cortez trainers. This predates Nike’s ACG range, hence the use of the running trainers rather than a pair of mountaineering boots. Other designs include ‘Athens 82’, referring to the 1992 European Athletics Championship held in the Greek capital, and the classic Nike text logo printed translucent to show the material beneath.
It seems with this collaboration, that Watanabe’s aim was not to boldly impose his brand's insignia over Nike’s fabric technology, but to respect the brand's sporting heritage, bringing his creative vision and his more subtle design sensibilities to the table. The crewneck in the first slide is currently available for purchase through the TRUSS APP and has become one of the more iconic pieces from this capsule.
