This article was published on October 31, 2022 and updated on December 19, 2022
sacai and Nike, together forever. Ever since the early days of their collaborative partnership — the 2015 Nikelab drop counts — the duo has perfected the art of the partnership by organically integrating sacai founder Chitose Abe's hybridization fascination with Nike tech, the most obvious examples being those instant-classic doubled-up sneakers from 2019.
sacai's ingeniously layered LDWaffle and Blazer shoes were unlike any collaborative drop you'd ever seen before, setting the standard for what collaborative kicks ought to look like. Like, it's fine if you wanna just drop a special colorway, but bring on the innovative sneaker design! Rework a silhouette from the top down! Go crazy!
For their forthcoming Fall/Winter 2022 collaboration, dropping as part of the December 2022 Hello sacai pop-up in Omotesando, sacai and Nike have toned things down without completely sacrificing the stuff that makes their partnership so essential.
The clothing, for instance, is some of the duo's most approachable to date, as sacai created some pretty wearable black T-shirts with built-in zippered pockets and drawcord hems, boxy bombers, easy trackpants, and a paneled fishtail parka.
It's been a long time coming for that coat: Abe & Nike already redesigned her preferred bit of militaria, the bomber jacket a few times, so it's only that that she eventually tackle the M-51 coat, perhaps her second favorite layering piece.
And, of course, it wouldn't be sacai x Nike unless there was something for the feets.
We've already seen the rumored sacai x Nike Cortez 4.0 that's supposedly releasing alongside the clothes in early leak photos but it's now confirmed that the grey sacai x Nike Cortez 4.0 colorway will release at the Hello sacai pop-up.
It's a bit less textural than the other grey suede sacai Nikes (including the fragment design pair seen below) but the new colorway makes up for that with the intricate, layered midsole that made the first sacai Cortez 4.0 colorway an instant winner and thus a perfect partner to the sacai's latest round of Nike gear.
