Sneaker News On this date two years ago, Vandal-A revealed an incredible collaborative project with Nike on one of the more underrated and under-appreciated silhouettes of the heralded 1980s. The Vandal understandably doesn’t get the attention it deserves due to the ubiquity of the Air Force 1 and magnetic hype of the Dunk, but for Nike OGs, this high-top and strapped basketball shoe is every bit the icon as the aforementioned. Bolstered with a flight-jacket aesthetic via the olive green, black, and infrared, Vandal-A’s approach to this design was also an homage to Geoff McFetridge’s “Tear-away” concepts from the mid-2000s – a true pioneer of the trend of removable exterior layers that’s hitting hard today.
After debuting his collaboration in 2018, Vandal-A seeded to super-limited pairs to a mega-exclusive group of recipients; Virgil Abloh, LeBron James, Zendaya, PJ Tucker, and DJ Khaled are just some of the notable figures who received this never-for-retail pair. These weren’t just thrown into an unmarked orange shoebox either; it came housed in a custom Nike box covered in green Pantone swatches, while a tough utility bag inspired by old military duffles, with thick ropes (a nod to the para-chord laces on the shoes) and a “money bag” and wallet that snaps onto the exterior, contributing to the kit.
As celebration of its brand’s anniversary (which falls on March 9th), Vandal-A has teamed up with SN Insider to give away one of these sets to Sneaker News and Vandal-A loyalists. Just fifty were made by Nike, making these one of the most limited collaborations in recent memory, and it truly is rare for an actual Nike friends-and-family issue to be made available to the public. Click here to enter this giveaway.
For now, follow @vandal_a on Instagram to see what the streetwear brand’s been up to.
