Phibs Treats the Uptown as His Blank Canvas

If a young Tim Phibs could flash forward and see himself spray painting fresh Air Force 1s – at Nike’s invitation! – he’d likely utter a surprised word or two. As a graffiti artist kid, Phibs appreciated untainted kicks to the extent that he’d paint walls with plastic bags wrapped round his feet. But that was then. The Australian artist has since graduated from his ‘apprenticeship’ and is today less about traipsing through train yards and scaling fences, and more about large-scale murals and partnering with Nike.

For a new collaboration with the Swoosh, Phibs has been hard at work on the Blank Canvas Collective — a colossal feat of customisation that sees the artist’s distinct iconography colour the community with wearable art.