Louis Vuitton x Nike Air Force 1 Low 'Metallic Gold'
Colorway: Metallic Gold/Metallic Gold/Baroque Brown/Black · Style code: 1A9VG3 · Release date: July 19, 2022 · Price: $4959 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Louis Vuitton Nike Air Force 1 Low By Virgil Abloh Sneakers (1A9V86) · Louis Vuitton Nike Air Force 1 Low By Virgil Abloh Sneakers (1A9VG1) · Louis Vuitton Nike Air Force 1 Low By Virgil Abloh Sneakers (1A9VA8) · Louis Vuitton Nike Air Force 1 Low By Virgil Abloh Sneakers (1A9VAU) · Louis Vuitton x Nike Air Force 1 Mid 'Graffiti' (1A9V-GRAFFITI-MID)
Bruce Kilgore drew the Air Force 1 in 1982 as a basketball shoe, and its claim at the time was engineering: the first basketball model to carry Nike's Air cushioning. It stopped production in 1984, returned in 1986, and has since been recoloured more than any other shoe the company makes.
Its fortieth year was the occasion for this. Virgil Abloh had been artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear since March 2018, the first person of African descent to hold the role, and the collection this belongs to was among the last work he completed before his death in November 2021.
The treatment is closer to leather goods than footwear. The upper is coated canvas in gold, with the Monogram, a pattern the house patented in 1896, pressed into the material rather than printed on top of it, so the repeat is visible only as relief. The swoosh is outlined in zigzag stitching in the same tone, which is the sort of detail that disappears in photographs and is the whole point in person. Tongue tags read Louis Vuitton Air, the heel carries the house logo, and the cupsole pairs brown sidewalls with a black outsole. It listed at $2,750.