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Nike Air Force 1 Bespoke: The “AACG Bespeaux” by Aaron Kr.

September 9, 2013by Aaron Kr.
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Nike’s Air Force 1 Bespoke program provides the ultimate sneaker customization experience, going well beyond the achievable limits of Nike iD. The Bespoke design studio at 21 Mercer offers up hundreds of different color and material choices that can be mixed and matched to your every whim and applied to each different panel of the shoe. There are pretty much no restrictions on what you can do to your shoe, and that’s what makes it not only the most premium sneaker customization opportunity available, but also any sneaker aficionado’s dream come true. While the lofty price for a pair of Bespokes is nothing to sneeze at, the chance to have a shoe that you design from scratch actually produced by Nike is hard to top, and it doesn’t hurt that the shoe is the Air Force 1 Low, one of the most timeless and iconic silhouettes in sneaker history.

It’s not often here at Sneaker News that we write stories from the first person, but what better excuse could there be than a Bespoke. I’ve whipped up my share of Nike iDs over the years, including some AF1s, but had really only daydreamed of taking the actual plunge into Bespoke territory. Some stars aligned and the time finally came to step up to the plate, but after scheduling the appointment, the reality set in that now I had to come up with a color/material layout worthy of Bespoke status. You’ll see what I eventually arrived at in the pages that follow, but we also thought it would be fun to bring you along for the ride by taking you through the thought and design process. Keep reading for the inside story on my Air Force 1 “AACG Bespeaux”, and contact Nike’s 21 Mercer store in NYC if you’re ready to bring your own vision to life.

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MY APPROACH

My worst fear was going in there with no gameplan and choking under the pressure of having to whip something up on the spot, so I went to unprecedented levels of personal sneaker geekdom and actually created a PhotoShop Air Force 1 template to experiment with. Every different panel of the shoe was traced out and layered so I could easily switch them up to try all kinds of color combinations. Kinda embarrassing, I know, but I was determined to go in there well-prepared for the job and spent more than a few hours playing around with all sorts of different blocking and color concepts. Initially, I didn’t really have any ideas or inspiration that jumped out at me, but I knew that I wanted to push the limits of

what had been done before me and that whatever I ended up with had to be something that made proper use of the freedom and flexibility offered by the Bespoke experience. What’s the point of going simple and clean when you have the chance to go wild to your heart’s content? I’ll save simple and clean for my Nike iD adventures – for my Bespoke, I wanted to make it as bespoke as bespoke gets, while still managing to show some self control and keep things tasteful. Lastly, the shoe had to be durable and rugged enough to wear without having to worry too much about their safety and long-term cleanliness.

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USING RESTRAINT

For me and I’m sure a lot of other Bespokers, one of the initial impulses is to want to use as many different colors and materials as possible, because frankly, when else will you have that kind of access and freedom to go nuts? Despite the overwhelming variety of options at your fingertips, you probably don’t want to end up with an ultra-busy Frankenstein shoe as your end result, so a little bit of discipline is required to refine things down to a manageable and harmonious balance. The way I saw it, if you’re going to make a shoe that’s basic enough that Nike could release something similar themselves, then why bother doing a Bespoke?

I was determined to take full advantage of what was at my disposal without going overboard and trying to cram in too many different elements, and I think that’s one of the biggest challenges in the process. As much as you want your shoe to be intricate and unique, if you don’t rein yourself in on certain decisions, the results can be a bit messy. I’ll leave the assessment of my success or failure up to you, but I feel satisfied in having used a ton of different colors and materials all over the shoes while still keeping things relatively cohesive and somewhat understated.

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ACCIDENTAL INSPIRATION

After experimenting with countless different color mock-ups and configurations, I finally decided on a general concept. I’ve always had a deep love for Nike ACG, so I thought why not make a rugged, yet luxurious All Conditions Gear version of the Air Force 1. I didn’t want to just borrow an existing colorway, but instead just do something original that still felt at home in the ACG family. There were a few designs in the running, but the one I liked best was a combination of grey, olive green and a deep magenta with some citrus-y yellow accents on the tongue and eyelet rings. After selecting that as my finalist, I went on to further tweak it and try out some slight variations.

One that caught my eye was switching the magenta to more of a wine-colored burgundy. That instantly gave the color palette a familiar look, and while at first, I couldn’t put my finger on it, eventually it occurred to me that the color scheme resembled the Air Jordan VII “Bordeaux”, one of my favorite sneakers of all time. From there, I decided to embrace the theme and add a few Bordeaux-ish touches like the addition of the blue on the eyelets, the multi-colored stitching on the tongue, and the hit of olive green on the heel strip. It was never my intention to make a Bordeaux Air Force 1, but the general color scheme was so similar, I couldn’t resist including some minor details to play it up a bit.

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THE DESIGN SESSION

On the day of my appointment, I had my chosen color concept firmly locked in, but I still faced the daunting task of selecting materials that would both hit the desired color targets and still be fabrics that I liked and that work well together. Luckily, 21 Mercer’s Bespoke design guru, Mau, was up for the challenge and helped me weed through the thick stacks of color swatches to find some potential winners. Wanting to utilize a diverse array of material options, I initially planned to mix up the different panels with a variety of looks, all possessing the classic-tech characteristics of the vintage ACG stuff. A curveball came my way when I couldn’t find proper color matches in a lot of the materials I would have loved to use, so I was faced with the dilemma of either deviating from my gameplan in order to use the materials I liked, or stick to my desired color layout and call some audibles on the make-up.

I went with the latter and found that the wide assortment of suedes offered the best route to my color vision. As a result, I chose to do

most of the upper in different suedes, and in some spots using the reverse sides of other materials. My second quagmire popped up when I couldn’t find an exact match to the more purplish wine color I was looking for. My best option was a deep red suede that wasn’t quite Bordeaux, but was still close enough to produce the desired effect. After getting the general design mapped out, it was then time to add some more subtle touches like the velour tongue and footbeds and the personal call-outs on the heel and midsole branding.

All in all, the end result ended up pretty close to my original blueprint, but it was the challenging decisions and eventual changes that were strangely the most rewarding part of the process. As much as I wanted to be prepared and confident in my gameplan going in, it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun or interesting to just show up and paint it by numbers with no obstacles or challenges along the way.

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THE MATERIALS

As mentioned, most of my Bespoke was done up in suede, but there’s quite a variety of different grits and textures used. In the cases of the maroon, olive and yellow, the specific materials were chosen because of their ability to fit the desired color hues, but in the case of the greys and blacks, they were more carefully handpicked from dozens of options. The nappy light grey suede of the mudguard made me think of the Lava Dome which made it a no-brainer, and the waterproof wool on the lateral heel panel also seemed appropriate for the all conditions theme. The lone piece of “tech” material comes by way of the black kevlar midpanels on the medial side. That kevlar weave is the one material I went in dead set on using on some section of the shoe.

The additional material selections go for more of a luxe effect. When I saw the grey velour swatch, I knew I had to have it, so I decided to use it on the tongue, and then thanks to Mau’s suggestion, we also put it on the footbeds for one of the comfiest underfoot feelings I’ve ever experienced. To keep things plush all around the foot, I also did the lining in suede, a decision that I was initially a little skeptical of. It feels great on foot, but there has to be some reason that we don’t see more shoes with suede linings. I guess I’ll find out if there’s some kind of horrible downside to it after a few wears, but for now, it looks and feels pretty nice.

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PERSONAL TOUCHES

Prior to my design session, I inquired about a long list of ways to push the Bespoke limits, and understandably, almost all of them were shot down, and with good reason. One of these requests was to use the classic Nike ACG triangle logo on the heel tab or tongue in place of the Nike Air branding. As I expected, it was a no-go, but was still worth asking about before going back to the drawing board.

Eventually, a similar idea came to me that I wound up liking just as much, if not more. While playing around with my template mock-up, I discovered that by highlighting individual letters in the NIKE AIR

branding on the heel, I could make a perfect “AKR” triangle, using my own initials to replicate a more personal version of the three-point ACG logo.

Along those same lines, I colored only the A’s on the midsole “AIR” branding as a callout to the double A’s in my name. I also threw an additional ACG nod into the mix with the “AACG” dubraes, another little personalized play on the double-A thing. While it would have been cool to use an original graphic or logo to brand it in my own way, I think I’m even happier with the way it worked out by using the existing playing field and contorting it to my own purposes.

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THE OUTCOME

In reality, combining the Air Force 1 with the Bordeaux VII and Nike ACG category all in one shoe makes no kind of sense and I’m fully aware of that. Choosing to include the Bordeaux-inspired touches completely altered the look of my original color design, as well as the initial ACG concept I was aiming for, but it also transformed the shoe into a somewhat nonsensical homage to some of my favorite shoes without just lazily stealing a colorway from an existing design. In the end, it’s doesn’t really look that much like an ACG shoe, and it’s certainly not a literal translation of the Bordeaux, but that’s okay with me, because the final result is now something much more unique than it ever would have been had I gone more clearly into one of those directions or the other.

Creating a Bespoke is a fantasy experience, and I wanted to create a fantasy shoe – something that could never exist in the real world because it’s too ridiculous to justify to anyone. To me, my “AACG Bespeaux” concoction is everything I wanted it to be, a personal reflection of my own sneaker passions and an ambitious attempt to cram as many different colors and materials onto the shoe as possible without heading into clown shoe territory. A huge thanks to Mau, Dave, and the 21 Mercer crew for making the whole process such a pleasure, and when you’re ready for your own Bespoke, know that you’ll be well taken care of by these guys every step of the way.

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