"THE ONE" - Custom AF1 by UHF for The Loft SS1

So, we were commissioned by The Loft & Askew to create a custom shoe - to be exact, a pair of Air Force 1's in either Mid or Lo for the upcoming Street Sessions event. The idea was to group together a bunch of local artists in conjunction with international Graffiti Wunderkinds WOW123 and SMASH137 from Germany and Switzerland to create a pair of custom shoes, and a matching canvas for an exhibition whilst Smash and Wow were in town on a tour of NZ. :thumbsup:

Here's how they started out, as a pair of White/White AF1 Low's:


As you can see, I dubbed the shoe as an "The One" - there's a funny story behind that, but it's probably too long for me to post it up here. In any case, I also called the shoe the "Air Force 1 Deluxe", as opposed to the normal 'Air Force 1 Premium', as a sign of the next step up from the normal AF1's.

The whole idea behind "The One" was to create a premium looking shoe that celebrated the old, yet embrace the current and the future. As we all know, it's the 25th anniversary of the AF1 this year (1982 - 2007), so as you can see, there's a lot of reference to the years on the packaging and the shoe itself. Also, the first colour that anybody seems to think of when you say "Air Force 1" is white, due to its duper-popular white/white model so when I was selecting colours for the shoe, I chose to leave some select panels in white to signify this.

It also seems that nowadays a lot of people are going towards the "hyper" colours and the ol' "five colours on each shoe" when designing customs; whilst that can be quite successful when applied accordingly, I thought it might be better for me to create a more solid, evergreen classic colourway of White, Black and Gold. I always appreciated a good, solid white/black colourway - its simplicity, its hard defined lines, and the fact that you can match a white/black shoe with almost anything in your closet.

So, I wanted the "look" of the shoe not to be in your face, and something that probably wouldn't seem out of place as a production item at a sneaker shop - but if you stopped for a second and look a bit closer, you would be able to see all the small details and work that went into the overall construction of the shoe.

Also, throughout the whole project, I made a concerted effort to keep the shoe "wearable", something to appeal to everybody instead of the hyper-colour frenzied crowd.

If you look even closer into the shoe you'll also see the various things that influence me as a person today. The textiles are actually off-cuts from clothing production - representing REPUBLIC, our clothing label, the tyre print represents modified cars and drifting, also something which I am involved in, and the 20K gold - well, that's just a bit of bling for you. :lol: As for the canvas, that features a landmark that is quite close to where I live - see if you can figure it out. ;)

Here's the finished shoe on display @ The Loft during the Street Session 1 event! :

PACKAGING:







THE ONE:

- Real 20K Gold Leafed Nike Swoosh
- Modified Toebox with black drill cotton for more streamlined side profile
- Micra-suede toe panel
- Re-coloured Mid-sole
- Re-coloured stitching
- Black and Gold lace eyelets
- UHF "Run Over" Tyre Print insoles















The accompanying canvas:



The shoes & canvas are currently on display @ The Loft for the next couple of weeks, and as per the exhibition, they are for sale in a set with the accompanying canvas. I can probably do another one for you in your size (these ones are US12) for a nominal fee, but you can PM me or email me about that. :)

Fortes Fortuna Iuvat. Never be afraid to lead.

Thanks, and hope you guys enjoy!

- UHF

ps - oh, and you'll never believe who dropped in the exhibition. Tres bizarre. :?

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