Sacai’s Chitose Abe Teams With Nike for Running Apparel
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Buidling on the success of a footwear collaboration with Nike, Sacai designer Chitose Abe has teamed with the athletic brand to launch an 11-piece running apparel collection.
The first drop of the new Nike x Sacai apparel line and new colors of the LDWaffle shoes debuted globally Thursday at the Sacai Aoyama flagship in Tokyo, Sacai on Lan Street in Hong Kong, Sacai Sanlitun in Beijing, as well as Sacai’s outposts in Selfridges and Le Bon Marché. It will also be offered via Nike and Nikelab, the Snkrs app and select doors internationally.
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Sacai creative director Abe had good reason to skip a launch party in New York earlier this week. She is busy preparing for the upcoming Sacai runway show on Sept. 30. To celebrate the collaboration, Nike threw a party in SoHo earlier this week which included a performance by the D.R.E.A.M. Project. Thee ultra limber dancers literally parted the crowd, pretending to swim past revelers at one point and linking arms to form human bridges at another. A nearby display of three mannequins decked out in looks from the line also magnified a certain dexterity. Like the D.R.E.A.M. Project dancers themselves, two of the mannequins had arms outstretched to relay a sense of exuberance.
Punctuated with an assortment of contrasting logos, patterns, colors and silhouettes, the apparel features a Windrunner jacket reimagined as a skirt, zip-front jackets, a sports bra and a Tempo short among other styles. Abe’s inventiveness, draping and layering are evident in the range. A sampling of the pricing details $85 for a sports bra, $100 for a T-shirt, $120 for running tights, and $150 for pleated shorts.
This latest drop builds upon a partnership with Abe and Nike that started in 2014. Fraser Cooke, special projects senior director, cited Abe’s ability to mix up sportswear with high fashion, as well as her layering and draping skills as plusses. The early stages of the Nike x Sacai LDWaffle required taking two photocopied pictures of two different shoes that were then folded in half and put on top of each other, according to Cooke.
Online browsers can find Nike-sponsored tennis star Naomi Osaka modeling the Nike x Sacai apparel and LDWaffle, as well as 11-year-old skateboarding sensation Sky Brown. Offered in various colorways, the designer’s collaborative footwear retails from $160 for the LDWaffle style and $140 for the Blazer Mid style. The sneakers were an immediate sellout on Nike’s e-commerce site Thursday. Consumer demand, however, prompted resell prices up to $640.
In late June, Abe showed the Sacai men’s spring 2020 collection alongside looks from the women’s pre-collection. The designer’s ambidextrousness could be seen in the signature hybrids that were based on the concept of two “similar ideas being merged together” in a wardrobe open to diversity and variety.
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