Sneaker News For the first time in what we hope will be a running series of activations throughout the continent and across the world, Virgil Abloh Archives partnered with Nike to open Virgil Abloh: The Codes in Paris–the first in Europe. From September 30th through October 9th, The Grand Palais was home to this stupendous display of Virgil’s genius, drawing nearly 60,000 visitors in that ten day span.
Doing the quick math, that’s roughly 6,000 visitors a day for this limited-engagement event. The love was certainly felt by Virgil’s surviving family and the Virgil Abloh Archives initiative which spent months curating this shrine to most influential designer of the 21st century.
From a sneaker fanatic’s point of view, there was plenty to see. Nearly every Virgil Abloh x Nike project dominated an entire wall of the exhibit, showcasing the talent and vision that Virgil implemented into not just the Swoosh, but the entire industry as a whole. An unfinished version of the iconic “Chicago” Air Jordan 1 was on display, but the star of this display was the never-before-seen Nike Cryoshot Tiempo sample; this sheds light on just how forward-thinking Nike and Virgil were during their time together.
The Virgil Abloh: The Codes has now closed. However, there’s plenty more from Virgil Abloh Archives to look for; later this Holiday season, the Virgil Abloh Archives x Air Jordan 1 “Alaska” is expected to launch, while future projects with Nike are in the works for 2026 and beyond.
