LEAKED: Sacai x Jean Paul Gaultier x Nike VaporWaffle
The sneaker we weren't sure we'd ever see.
The Jean Paul Gaultier x sacai x Nike (NYSE:NKE -0.35%) LDVaporwaffle Mix sneaker was meant to premiere at Jean Paul Gaultier’s couture show in Paris in 2020. The show was set to mark a new dawn for the fashion house as it was the first since its namesake’s retirement and the first featuring designer, Chitose Abe. However, when the pandemic took over the world, Paris fashion week, the show, and the shoe launch, were all cancelled. Nike and JPG fans were left on tenterhooks, and the sneaker drop became a much-anticipated symbol of the fashion house’s new dawn.
You can therefore imagine the excitement when @py_rates_ beat leaked images of the sneakers on their Instagram on Monday. The Jean Paul Gaultier x sacai x Nike (NYSE:NKE -0.35%) LDVaporwaffle Mix sneaker blends iconic elements from each of the seminal powerhouses. The sneakers feature the maximalist soles of the Nike LDWaffle and Vaporwaffle sneakers in a nod to sacai’s past collabs with Nike. They also pay homage to the JPG fashion house and its editorial past, with JPG custom blue and white striped insoles and exterior woven stitches. These stitches also draw clear inspiration from the Nike Air Footscape. The shoe really is a marriage between reimagined couture and Nike’s new natural motion legacy.
Featuring a mix of suede and leather textures (with what looks like a hint of burlap) the leak shows the sneaker in 2 color-ways— “Black/Black-White” and “Semi-Blue-Void White.” The sneakers are set to retail for around $180 and are expected to officially launch (finally!) sometime this fall.
Whilst social media comments show divided opinions over the new design, (one person notably referenced the movie "Coraline" in their analysis of the shoe which was a creepy but strangely apt description) that doesn’t stop the drop being one of the most anticipated of the year. However, whether we’ll get Abe’s promised couture fashion show along with it is another story.
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