Who’s lazy: Supreme or Nike?

By Ray Zhang

What’s with no-effort white (or black) sneaker collaborations these days? Or was Prada and Adidas really on to something?

Supreme and Nike has just revealed their next collab in the form of the Air Force 1 Low. It is the same shoe you have worn since Sec 2, black or white, but now with that logo. Why bother? Sure, I am not their target customer. One red box-logo isn’t going to make be a convert. Or turn me into a hypebeast right away. Still, can these really make feet walk on cloud nine? Or encourage a pair to queue for hours to score them?

Frankly, I am getting a bit fed up with collaborations that merely want to reprise the pristine—keep them as intact as possible. Why change anything if the original has worked for so long, I hear you ask, and with earnestness. Because just slapping a logo on a shoe, however popular its silhouette, is an exercise in branding, not design. I have a brand, you have a brand, let’s go for it. But, as branding go, a massively passive effort. Logo placement alone requires no mulling over.

These are the Supreme X Hanes tees for feet!

I don’t know why something more can’t be done, even slightly more. A different coloured mid-sole? A contrast Swoosh? A patterned tongue? For goodness’ sake, at least try.

Photo: Supreme/Nike