Off-White x Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG 'White' 2018
Colorway: White/White · Style code: AQ0818-100 · Release date: March 3, 2018 · Price: $2052 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Off-White x Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG 'UNC' (AQ0818-148) · Off-White x Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG 'UNC' Sample (AQ0818-148-S) · Jordan Lift Off Sneakers (AR4430-101) · Jordan Zion 3 Sanctuary Sneakers in Offin White/Off White/Pink Foam (DV3869-103) · OFF x Jordan Hoodie (DM0059-054)
Nike handed Virgil Abloh ten of its shoes in 2017 and let him take them apart. The results, released across October and November that year, carried exposed foam, zip-tie tags, quotation-marked labels and a swoosh stitched on top of the upper rather than into it. They reset what a collaboration was allowed to look like.
The Air Jordan 1 was the centrepiece, and the version everyone saw was the red and white Chicago. White had actually come first in Abloh's process: an all-white treatment he set aside because, stripped of colour, the shoe started to resemble a white Dunk more than a Jordan.
The idea survived anyway. In 2018 the white version was produced as a Europe-only release, keeping the premium leather and mesh construction, the deconstructed swoosh with its blue detailing, the black AIR text on the midsole, the printed side-panel type and the orange tab, while removing the colour that had made the first pair legible from across a street. It is the same argument made quietly, and it reached a much smaller audience than the pair it was originally meant to be.