Advocating the Individual
Published by SEVENSTORE for Nike
Author: Millie Throp
When the revolutionary Nike Air Footscape Sneaker debuted in 1996, 22 years after the Oregon-based footwear brand was founded by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight, it formed the basis for much misunderstanding. It evoked passion on both sides of opinion barriers: from those that loved the model, to those that didn’t. Ideated by then in-house designer Toren Orzeck, harnessing a ‘function-over-form’ approach to its design, the Footscape introduced a unique, anatomical structure not commonly seen in running silhouettes. Featuring a rear plastic heel cup for support, and a lacing system to its side, its construction focused on an easing of the pressure points found at the base of the leg, making for a striking yet divisive outline.
Arguably before its time, and despite being made in an era sneaker fans consider experimental for footwear releases, the pair’s maximalist aesthetic proved to please the open minded, shocking modes of regularity. As Orzeck says, “the Footscape was almost killed as being ‘too risky’”, but with the sneaker never destined for the safe route, its trajectory took a turn upon an embrace from the East. Seeing its technical construction and outlandish arrest appreciated in Japan, this lineage engendered another iteration in the mid-2000s: the Nike Air Woven Footscape Sneaker.
With the sneaker market having transformed in taste since then, meddling in Nike’s further eclectic styles in the Footscape’s wake, its archival pairs offer a pinnacle for visionary concepts, now a sought-after collector’s item. So, despite its initial subjectivity, its cult popularity cements it’s here-to-stay place in individuality, its eye-catching lineation guiding the coming paths of brave, stylistic marvels.
Now, its re-emerging in a spotted “Sail” and “Sail-Black” colouration, it’s a further celebration for those going against the grain, inviting each of them to assemble for a victory lap in the silhouette’s comforting, yet visually vocal outsoles.
Here, this new version provides an ease of styling, offering a centrepiece to the rotations of pattern-lovers and more minimalist tribes alike. As ever, proving that despite the passing of a quarter-century since its origination, a leopard’s spots never change. Especially, where versatility and the avant-garde are constantly in tow. Coating the uppers of the unisex model, faux fur then comes intercepted by a cross-hatched, asymmetrical lacing system. Alongside, its exterior updates another signature feature, by adding a buoyant rubber outsole for on-foot propulsion, perfected by the brand’s progressions in “Air” technology.
In celebrating the release of this new, richly tactile Nike Air Footscape Woven Sneaker, SEVENSTORE toasted to such vanguards in an artist’s workshop turned domestic space in the heart of Clapton, a knick-knack packed home mirroring the eclecticism of this once divisive model.
Encouraging an intersectional placing of look-construction into life itself, the silhouette layers many concepts into one design. Now, find an all-encompassing statement style. Mirroring the mix-matched, yet softly furnished London locus in which its launch is honoured, although the Footscape has always been for the many, its advocation for originality always finds its way back to the individual.