Following the collaborative Haute Couture show between sacai and Jean Paul Gaultier, the brands released a special eight-piece ready-to-wear collection and opened up preorders for their Nike LDVaporWafle sneaker. With the opportunity to secure a pair, we got official pictures of the sneaker collaboration which ups the ante of the VaporWaffle.
Coming in two colorways known as Black/White and Sesame Blue, the Jean Paul Gaultier x sacai x Nike LDVaporWaffle is composed of unique oversized stitching as well as a mixture of fabrics including mesh, suede and leather. While the shoe stays true to its predecessor’s elements with the unstructured sole and double tongue and laces feature, the most noticeable change to sacai’s VaporWaffle is perhaps the high-top nature of the shoe as it has appeared as a low-top sneaker in the past. Additionally, the shoe presents the logos of Nike, sacai and Jean Paul Gaultier.
In January 2020, Jean Paul Gaultier retired from his brand with an extravagant Spring 2020 couture show. It was later announced that Chitose Abe would design the brand’s Autumn/Winter 2020 couture collection as an introduction to Gaultier’s new “collaborative era”. The sneaker collaboration was scheduled to be showcased during that time. However, the ongoing pandemic paused plans but sneak peeks at the shoe still managed to leak out.
The joint collection with Abe was apparently very much hands-off on Gaultier’s part as he allowed her complete creative freedom with the Haute Couture FW21 collection. She essentially paid homage to the iconic brand by reimagining Gaultier’s signature silhouettes that launched the brand into a household name.
Today, fans were granted the chance to secure a pair of the Jean Paul Gaultier x sacai x Nike LDVaporWaffle through pre-order on the Sacai x Jean Paul Gaultier website. However, the shoes sold out with the preorder option. Don’t freak out yet, the shoes are scheduled to receive a wider release in September, confirmed by sacai.