Reebok Extends Their CFDA Partnership With New York Fashion Week Notables

Already partnered with Korean label Kanghyuk and the immensely iconic label Maison Margiela, Reebok has quite the roster of fashionable friends under their belt, with more slowly being added by the day. Fostering relationships from all over the globe — nanamica and BlackEyePatch in Japan or even JJJJound in Montreal — the imprint is slowly fleshing out its cultural backing with the help of every one of the aforementioned as well as the up-and-comers under the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA for short). As New York Fashion Week continues to run its course, there’s a total of five newly added collaborators intermixed through the runway shows: paa, Victor Li, KEENKEE, NIHL, and Kenneth Nicholson.

Walked by former Sneaker News editor Brendan Dunne, the paa show is the only of the sort to examine the Classic Nylon as well as the Classic Leather, crafting it with very little embellishments in the grand scheme. Tags at the tongue stamp with their signature logo, the “Reebok” window at the side is covered over by distressed strips, and the core tonality lies low by way of wholly done light blues or alluringly luxe creams. In a similar vein, menswear designer Victor Li also aims to keep his canvas simple with the Club C but everything done after is anything but subtle: pairs are given metallic hooks for laces, giant pouches in place of a tongue, or even branded buckles with seemingly clay-covered soles.

Connected in their use of the Zig Kinetica, the last three labels are far more comparable on paper, yet with each their own vision, the end product is something at times unrecognizable. This is most apparent in KEENKEE’s work, the Kee Kim directed imprint whose direction is summed up as “Relevant Layers.” A narrative explorative of the interaction between the clothing and wearer, the models come replete with visible edge, utilizing a wide variety of fabrics in all sorts of colors to completely shroud the technical base; one outlier, however, does opt for different themes as metallic adornments further accentuate the upper’s natural lines. NIHL, who had only one to show, adds DIY crafts to the aesthetic as beads drape down the sides as if embedded into the very weave. Lastly, Kenneth Nicholson turns the silhouette into a steampunk caricature as nuts and bolts screw onto the sides and forefoots stain with oil mess.

Feast your eyes on what was available right here, but don’t hold you breath for a full release as these are said to be only for presentation purposes.