Subliminal Bliss & Nike

A “Subliminal Bliss� & Nike Collaboration

A special edition footwear collaboration, looking at sustainability and how this can build a sneaker that offers style but more importantly promotes sustainability and continues to push boundaries of what is possible with recycable materials.

Off-White x Nike The foundations of ‘Subliminal Bliss’ is built from Off-White and H&M. Off-White and Virgl Abloh have had an ongoing partnership with Nike, producing the iconic ‘The Ten’ collection.

This features some of the most recognisable and sort after sneakers of the last decade. Like The Air Jordan 1 “Chicago” (right) and “UNC”.

Other collaborative pieces include Nike Dunks and Vapor street runners. The usual formula for this collaboration is to take a classic or popular silhouette and add a new dimension to it or add something not traditionally used on that particular shoe. Again, example on the right, with the extra laces laid on top.

Skepta x Nike Skepta has also collaborated with Nike, and he has also worked with Abloh on Off-White and Louis Vuitton.

His work was based off popular models and more lifestyle based products. The Nike ‘Shox’ was quite a different model to work with and soon after this collab Neymar Jr also has his own pair of ‘Shox’.

In general, Skepta has created his collabs with detail and attention to it, with the shoes really being ‘if you know, you know’.

Images taken from SneakerNews

The Collaboration The collaboration will consist of initially one sneaker, a more exclusive and unique product. Something that is a popular silhouette and then add the Off-White touch, an aspect that doesn’t necessarily go with that sneaker.

When looking at popular Nike silhouettes, especially in 2020, the ‘Dunk’ as had a resurgence with Travis Scott creating one with Nike (right) and the Off-White Dunks also. It has a rich history with some of Nike’s biggest and most lucrative models coming in the form of a Dunk. For example, the ‘Pigeon Dunk’ (middle) from New York or the ‘Diamond Supply Co. Dunk’ (left) with the velcro swoosh.

Images taken from SneakerNews

When looking at this Dunks, they either had an extremely strong back story or origin like the Pigeon dunks and their representation of New Yorks pigeons. Or they had a more ‘out there’ design/ use of materials, like the Travis Scott’s.

With the Nike x SB shoe, I want to use materials representative of sustainable shoes that still keep in trend and have merit on a streetwear hype level. A lot of streetwear fashion is mixing brands in outfits like Palace, Heron Preston and Adidas in one outfit.

Wearability, sustainability and longevity will be the key to this partnership and I hope will give the growing brand in Subliminal Bliss more exposure in terms of gaining from Nikes global reach.

The Nike BS

This was the initial mockup for the sneaker, featuring a brown leather upper and transculent panels on the toebox, the outer sole and the side panelling. The brown upper represents cardboard and how that can be recycled. The transculent panelling represents plastic and the recycling of plastic. The Dunk in silhouette is traditional, what sets the sneaker apart is the use of transculent material, which has been used in a lot popular and hyped shoes in recent years. Examples of this would be the the Off-White Converse Chucks (Left), Diors sneakers (middle) and Nike react element 87 (Right).

Images taken from The Sole Supplier and Goat.

This is quite a premium material and is rarely associated with general release shoes, so the fact that the sneaker has transculent panels should add to the hype and stir up more anticiptation for the release.

After creating that mockup and looking at further OW x Nike collabs, I added more detail and details to make the shoe more unique, like different types of laces, quotation marks and thought about a custom box. With the sneaker being a limited physically only drop like the main collection, added bonuses can be put it, adding to the customer experience.

After looking deeper at how other collabs have gone, I added Abloh’s signature quotation marks on the plastic and outer sole, saying “Plastic” and “Sustainability respectively. To give the shoe a more literal message, using slight irony yet again, like Off-White does.

Other areas I chose were the tongue tab, adding the collaboration logo, giving a more obvious statement that it’s a collaboration. Then I added the words ‘Bliss’ across both heel tabs, giving the inspiration for the name ‘The Bliss Dunks’.

Creating a one off display piece Something I wanted to do is create a more conceptual piece to use for pozter or advertising showing the literally example of the shoe, using old packaging and drinks bottles we’d gone through at home, something more people should have, showing that anything around us, or items and materials we tend to bin, can be made in to something useful or used in different ways.

This also gives a decent comparison to the mockups of what the base of the sneaker would actually look like.

Packaging

The box will be a standard Nike SB box with the collaboration logo on the side and then the special part of the box will be the plastic sheet across the top, showing the sneakers and the tissue paper inside, again, showing transparency.

Retail

The retail for the shoe will be more expensive than usual shoes and will be in a small quantity sold at the main pop-up event. The pricing will be ÂŁ150, this comes from the more premium quality used.

The Nike x SB “Bliss� Dunk

A Subliminal Bliss and Nike Partnership, tackling sustainability and the transparency surrounding it.

References Dior B23 High ‘Dior Oblique’ . (2020). Retrieved from Goat : https://www.goat. com/sneakers/dior-b23-high-dior-oblique-3sh118yjp-h069 Dwyer, R. (2018, October 31). Nike SB “Diamond Dunk” Release Dates Announced. Retrieved from SneakerNews: https://sneakernews.com/2018/10/31/ nike-sb-diamond-dunk-release-date/ Dwyer, R. (2019, September 5). Skepta’s Nike Shox TL Collaboration Releases On September 12th. Retrieved from SneakerNews: https://sneakernews. com/2019/09/05/skepta-nike-shox-tl-ci0987-001-official-release-date/ If You’re Obsessed With Hype, The Off-White x Nike Dunk Low Is The Dream Shoe. (2019, December 12). Retrieved from SneakerNews: https://sneakernews. com/2019/12/12/off-white-nike-dunk-release-date/ Nike React Element 87 Grey Blue Red. (2019, October 11). Retrieved from Sole Supplier: https://thesolesupplier.co.uk/release-dates/nike/react-element-87/nikereact-element-87-grey-blue-red-aq1090-006/ Nike SB Dunk Pigeon. (n.d.). Retrieved from SneakerNews: https://sneakernews. com/nike-dunk-sb/nike-dunk-low-pro-sb-pigeon-medium-grey-white-darkgrey/ Off-White x Converse Chuck Taylor All Star. (2019, May 12). Retrieved from Sole Supplier: https://thesolesupplier.co.uk/release-dates/converse/chuck-70/off-whitex-converse-chuck-taylor-all-star/ Santiago, E. (2020, February 28). The Travis Scott x Nike SB Dunk Releases Tomorrow. Retrieved from SneakerNews: https://sneakernews.com/2020/02/28/ travis-scott-nike-sb-dunk-ct5053-001-release-date/ Schlemmer, Z. (2017, August 18). Detailed Look At OFF-WHITE x Air Jordan 1 And Its Packaging. Retrieved from SneakerNews: https://sneakernews. com/2017/08/18/detailed-look-off-white-air-jordan-1-packaging/