Last week I made the trip up to Shanghai for an unveiling of Nike Sportswear’s upcoming Spring/Summer 2011 collection. Among the showings that I thought were the most interesting/impressive were the Kobe Bryant Air Force 1 High Foamposites and Air Force 1 Low, the NSW collection and what you see above, the Nike Sportswear Air Force 1 Low Supreme “Year of the Rabbit”.

Now in my eyes, uninspiring design is when the message is showcased in an all too literal way. That means when its spelled out for you. I always felt that some streetwear labels always had this as a central agenda. Telling a story in the most direct way possible without any sort of room for interpretation or ingenuity gets bored fast. Maybe that’s why slogan t-shirts are more often than not lame… it doesn’t matter what font you choose, it’s essentially the same shit.

And on that note, I don’t think sneaker design can necessarily get that complex. When you enter a realm where there’s a so called inspiration behind the design, more often than note the common denominator is the colorway. Some go the aforementioned super literal route with examples including that Nike SB “Three Bears” pack from a few years ago or the Transformers x Nike Basketball collection, personally I find those a bit boring. I did however find this year’s Lunar New Year homage a fine line between staying true to an inspiration all while maintaining a tasteful approach to re-appropriation. The color is simply based off of White Rabbit Creamy Candy which has far reaching appeal to pretty much anybody who’s Chinese or Asian. The subtle incorporation of terry cloth Swoosh, the liner and the Chinese character came relatively natural to me. I didn’t receive the crazy packaging but together it represented a nice finishing piece.

I don’t really like to get over-analytical about footwear design (when it comes to colorways as opposed to engineering) cause I find it a bit pretentious, but Rocky Xu and the Nike China team put together a sneaker and package I feel has both domestic and international appeal. As foreign brands concentrate on the massive Chinese market, some go the route of creating catered product which might work in the mainland (case in point: Leica for China 60th Anniversary Camera) but doesn’t see much international respect, it’s a homerun when it works both ways. All of a sudden, White Rabbit candy has that much more interest from non-Asians as well haha.

Well before I finish off this post, I will jock some more. I told Rocky, people better save room in their Top 10 of 2011… lists and I actually hate Air Force 1s. That and the Superstar are two sneakers that never EVER did anything for me.

Thanks a lot to the crew at Nike: Brenda, Rocky, Jeanne, Joyce and England. The sneakers drop on January 23, 2011 in select spots in China.

-Eugene