Virgil Abloh's Limited Edition Nike Air Force 1s To Go To Auction
The Louis Vuitton and Nike collaboration will open for bidding on January 26.
Virgil Abloh (Photo: Christian Vierig/Getty Images)
At Louis Vuitton's men's spring summer 2022 collection last June, Virgil Abloh made waves in the footwear world by unveiling his interpretation of Nike's iconic Air Force 1s. He designed 47 pairs in total, styling the calf leather designs with the French fashion house's monogram and the written graphic quotation marks that came to be a signature of his work.
Months after his death, 200 pairs of the late designer's special edition sneakers will now be released for the first time via a Sotheby's auction in association with his family. Bidding, which starts at $2,000, will last from January 26 to February 8. Each pair will also be sold with a leather Louis Vuitton pilot case in a bright orange hue–another reinterpretation (this time taken from the French maison's archive).
Proceeds from the auction will go to Abloh's Post-Modern Scholarship Fund, which he launched in July 2020 in order to provide scholarships and ongoing career-support services to students of Black, African-American, or African descent.
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Photo: Louis Vuitton
Photo: Louis Vuitton
Photo: Louis Vuitton
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A free public exhibition at Sotheby's New York will also display the special edition sneakers and pilot case from January 19 to February 8.
Meanwhile, Louis Vuitton will also open an exhibition featuring the original 47 pairs from Abloh's final collection, with details to be announced at a later date.
The exhibition will precede a commercial launch of Abloh's Louis Vuitton and Nike Air Force 1s, in which the house will exclusively sell limited quantities of pairs in different colorways than those that were auctioned.
This article originally appeared in Harper's BAZAAR US