Nike's Free 'Textbook'

One of the biggest sneaker design collaborations of the last year has been 
Nike’s partnership with Virgil Abloh — founder of fashion label Off-White 
and new men’s artistic director of Louis Vuitton. 
Known as “The Ten,”  the project gave Abloh license to reconstruct 10 of 
Nike’s most-recognized shoes, including the Air Jordan 1, the Air Force 1, 
the Air Max 90, and more.

Now Nike has released a “textbook” online—you can download it here (pdf)
— documenting how the collaboration developed behind the scenes. 
Nike calls it “an encyclopedia of images and text surrounding the project.” 
It includes background stories of the original sneaker styles, written by 
much-loved sneaker journalist Gary Warnett, who unexpectedly died last 
year, as well as commentary from Andy Caine, Nike’s VP of footwear design, 
and Abloh himself.

The book offers a peak beneath the hype at what went into creating the 
shoes, including the trial and error of design, and how Abloh played off the 
long-held emotional connections people feel toward their sneakers to 
create his own new takes.