Vlone x NikeLab Air Force 1 'Vlone'
Colorway: Black/Orange · Style code: AA5360-001 · Release date: February 11, 2017 · Price: $4059 · Availability: Available now
Vlone came out of the A$AP Mob's orbit in Harlem, built on a small set of repeated signals: the split V, one loud orange, and the phrase 'Every Living Creature Dies Alone' that gave the label its name. The Air Force 1 that came out of the NikeLab pairing keeps all three and little else. Black leather covers the upper, the Swoosh and the contrast stitching run in neon orange, and the heel carries the phrase in full rather than a logo. The pair was first shown at a convention in late 2016 and did not reach anyone until the following February, when it sold through a pop-up in Harlem rather than through Nike's own channels, a distribution choice that matched the brand's habit of treating a release as an event tied to a specific block. The silhouette was not incidental either: the model's long association with New York, and with Harlem in particular, is most of the reason the collaboration reads the way it does. NikeLab handled production, which at that point was the company's route for putting outside designers onto core silhouettes without folding them into the mainline calendar.