Nike Brand Collabs: Luxury brand partnerships become the talk of the town

As Nike’s latest collaboration with Tiffany & Co. is drawing attention, Social Samosa takes a look at some of its iconic brand collaborations with Louis Vuitton, Dior and more.

In terms of brand collaborations, footwear giant Nike believes in ‘just doing it’ and most often gets it right. Over the years, the brand has cleverly managed to become a status symbol through its association with high fashion brands, with a market value standing at $195.94 billion.  

It has strategically entered the luxury and jewellery industry by collaborating with brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Supreme and more to expand its audience.

With this, Nike’s latest brand collab with Tiffany & Co. has garnered attention. The brands officially took to social media and informed about the launch of the new limited edition Air Force 1 Low ‘1837’.  

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Nike (@nike)

This marks their first-ever collaboration, despite the sneaker brand’s 2005 Diamond Supply Co and Nike SB Dunk being inspired by Tiffany’s brand colours. The jewellery brand is attempting to attract younger customers by creating a different image, having previously collaborated with Jay Z and Beyoncé. 

Also Read: Co-marketing is a marketer’s delight: Sameer Seth

But fashion isn’t the only industry Nike has entered. In 2021, Nike joined hands with Travis Scott to create new Dunk Low sneakers for the release of PlayStation 5. In a rather peculiar move, the brand even created the low-top SB Dunk shoes for Ben & Jerry’s dubbed as ‘Chunky Dunky’. 

Despite the occasional segue into other industries, the brand has relatively stuck to luxury brand collaborations with great success.

Off-White

To remember late fashion designer Virgil Abloh, the Off-White x Nike Blazer Low shoes were released, keeping in line with the designer's open-source approach to product creation and modification.

Jacquemus

In 2022, Jacquemus’s first-ever partnership with the brand involved a collection of apparel and footwear to celebrate Nike’s 50th anniversary. The duo’s fashionable sport shoe collaboration combines a vintage aesthetic. 

Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton launched the Nike Air Force 1 shoes designed by the late Virgil Abloh under its Men’s Spring/Summer 2022 collection. The proceeds from the sales have been contributed to the Virgil Abloh ‘Post-Modern’ Scholarship Fund with 200 pairs being sold out.

Supreme 

As longtime partners, the T-shirt brand once again joined Nike to create Zoom Air Flight 95 silhouettes. In 2021, it also launched a range of products in collaboration with Supreme to target the youth who own CryptoPunk NFTs. 

Sacai

The luxury Japanese label first collaborated with Nike in 2015, to create a capsule apparel collection that married sportswear and fashion. Sacai then reinvented the Waffle shoes in 2019, keeping the shoe brand’s original styles in mind. To celebrate it, the brand created gluten free waffles, only available in Tokyo.

Dior

The fashion brand gave birth to Air Dior with its collaboration with Nike-owned Air Jordan. It commemorated the legacies of late Christian Dior and late Michael Jordan through street style.

Swarovski

This bejewelled collaboration by the two brands introduced a crystal studded Air Force 1, inspired by street lights, for its womenswear collection. 

Through its unique collaborations, Nike has often paid a tribute to those who departed from the world but have left a strong impression behind. The footwear giant is also partnering with luxury brands to fuel its growth and keep innovation at the centre of it. Nike is also becoming the next big luxury fashion house through its partnerships.