The Nike x Off-White collaboration is remembered primarily for The Ten, but its story began before those ten sneakers reached stores. In October 2016, Virgil Abloh arrived at Nike’s Beaverton headquarters and began cutting, drawing on, and rebuilding a triple-black Air Force 1 Low almost as soon as he got an inside look at the company’s process.
That exercise grew into a partnership spanning Nike, Jordan Brand, and Converse, reinterpreting some of the world’s best-known sneakers. After Virgil’s death in 2021, it also came to encompass posthumous projects, exhibitions, and the preservation of his creative archive.
The partnership combined visual reconstruction with entirely new designs. To follow its history, distinguish The Ten’s ten models, The 50’s fifty Dunk variations, and Virgil’s separate Louis Vuitton x Nike project.
Nike x Off-White began in 2016
Virgil Abloh had an emotional connection to Nike long before officially working with the company. As a teenager in Rockford, Illinois, he and his friends drew sneaker ideas and mailed them to the brand.
The professional collaboration began taking shape in October 2016, during his first visit to Nike’s world headquarters.
Virgil took an all-black Air Force 1 Low, modified it with an X-ACTO knife, and drew directly on the shoe. The experiment led to a small series of 12 Air Force 1s handmade by Matt Kilgore at Nike’s Blue Ribbon Studios.
Matt Kilgore should not be confused with Bruce Kilgore, designer of the original 1982 Air Force 1. Matt is Bruce’s son and worked directly on this first experiment with Abloh.
Virgil’s team wore the pairs at that year’s Design Miami/. They already featured elements that would later become familiar: exposed foam, a silver Swoosh with prominent stitching, and text revealing information usually hidden within the product.
For more on the silhouette used in this first experiment, read our Nike Air Force 1 history.
The Ten: The ten sneakers that defined the collaboration
In August 2017, Nike officially introduced The Ten, a collaborative exploration of ten silhouettes connected to NIKE, Inc.
The project was divided into two five-model themes, Revealing and Ghosting. These were two design approaches within one project, rather than two independent collaborations.
Revealing
- Air Jordan I
- Nike Air Max 90
- Nike Air Presto
- Nike Air VaporMax
- Nike Blazer Mid
Revealing used a deliberately open, reconstructed design language. Exposed foam, displaced Swooshes, visible stitching, repositioned components, and inscriptions made the manufacturing process part of the look itself.
Ghosting
- Converse Chuck Taylor
- Nike Zoom Fly SP
- Nike Air Force 1 Low
- Nike React Hyperdunk 2017
- Nike Air Max 97
Ghosting used translucent materials to create a visual connection among models from different eras and categories.
The collection’s running model is the Zoom Fly SP, not the Vaporfly. Virgil drew inspiration from performance advances associated with Breaking2 and the Vaporfly Elite, but the actual silhouette in The Ten was the Zoom Fly SP.
There is also a corporate distinction: the Chuck Taylor belongs to Converse. Converse is part of NIKE, Inc. but remains a separate brand from Nike.
Likewise, the collection’s Air Max 97 should not simply be described as an “Off-White Silver Bullet.” The first The Ten version used Ghosting’s characteristic translucent approach.
Ten sneakers in about ten months
According to Nike, The Ten took about ten months to develop. Bringing ten models from different eras and categories into one coherent collection was part of the challenge.
Virgil worked quickly and iteratively. Rather than hide prototypes and evidence of the process, he often turned those elements into part of the finished product’s language.
Nike created the Off Campus program in New York and London, with presentations, discussions, and design activities. The five Revealing models had prereleases at NikeLab locations in New York, London, Milan, and Paris in September 2017. Main distribution began that November, but the translucent Converse Chuck Taylor arrived later, in May 2018.
Virgil Abloh: Engineering, architecture, music, and fashion
Virgil Abloh was born in Rockford, Illinois, in 1980. His academic background was not in fashion: he earned a civil engineering degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and later a master’s in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Before Off-White, he worked in music, creative direction, design, and the Pyrex Vision project. Off-White was established as a brand in 2013, while Pyrex Vision had emerged the previous year.
In March 2018, Virgil was appointed Louis Vuitton’s men’s artistic director, a position he held until his death.
Virgil Abloh died on November 28, 2021, at age 41. He had been diagnosed in 2019 with cardiac angiosarcoma, a rare, aggressive cancer, and had kept his treatment private.
What did Virgil mean by the 3% rule?
One of the ideas most closely associated with Virgil is the “3 percent approach.”
During a 2017 lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he explained his interest in objects that remain recognizable after small interventions. The idea was to use familiarity, editing, and recontextualization to change how an existing object is read.
The “3%” should be understood as a creative principle, not an equation. Virgil did not have to calculate whether exactly 3% of a sneaker had been modified.
That thinking helps explain The Ten: the Air Jordan 1 was still immediately recognizable as a Jordan 1, but the presentation of its Swoosh, foam, stitching, text, and components completely changed its interpretation. Compare that approach with other Air Jordan 1 collaborations.
The details that defined Nike x Off-White
Zip tie
The industrial zip tie became one of Off-White’s most recognizable design symbols. It is not a certificate of authenticity, however. Counterfeiters can reproduce it, so its presence alone proves nothing about a pair’s origin.
Orange tab
The small orange tab near the Swoosh is another recurring visual element and should not be confused with the zip tie. While developing The Ten, Virgil used these small areas of color as part of his interventions in familiar constructions.
Words in quotation marks
“AIR,” “SHOELACES,” and other text turned functional descriptions into graphics. Rather than hide a component’s name, Virgil often made it exaggeratedly explicit.
Exposed foam and stitching
Tongues with visible foam, unfinished edges, and exposed stitching helped create the look of a prototype or an object still in progress.
Why did The Ten have such an impact?
The collaboration arrived as sneakers, streetwear, luxury fashion, and digital culture were rapidly moving closer together.
The Ten did not invent that convergence, but it became one of its most visible expressions. A familiar athletic sneaker could be dismantled, annotated, and treated as a design object without losing its recognizable form.
Another factor was Virgil’s reach across disciplines. He moved among architecture, music, DJing, streetwear, product design, and luxury fashion. The Nike collaboration made sense precisely because his practice did not observe rigid boundaries between those fields.
That impact does not need to be proven through resale prices. Nike’s continued preservation and exhibition of Virgil’s creative process years later is more meaningful evidence of his importance to the company’s design history.
The Queen Collection with Serena Williams
In 2018, Virgil and Nike created the Queen Collection for Serena Williams around the US Open. It combined tennis performance with Abloh’s visual language and included apparel and footwear versions associated with the athlete.
This project should not be confused with the Serena Williams Design Crew. Nike created the Design Crew in 2019 as a separate initiative aimed, among other goals, at expanding diversity and opportunities in design.
MoMA and MCA: Two different Air Force 1s
Two acronyms often cause confusion among the partnership’s most famous Air Force 1s.
MoMA is New York’s Museum of Modern Art. In 2018, the MoMA Design Store participated in the release of a black Off-White x Nike Air Force 1.
MCA is the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. In 2019, it hosted Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech, the first major museum exhibition devoted to his work. The University Blue Air Force 1 associated with that period became known among sneakerheads as “MCA.”
MoMA and MCA are therefore not alternative names for the same project.
The 50: Fifty Nike Dunk Low Lots
In 2021, Nike and Virgil expanded the idea of variation through a large Dunk Low project known as The 50, or Dear Summer.
The project featured 50 different Lots, numbered 01/50 through 50/50. Forty-eight used a relatively similar visual base, differentiated by combinations of materials, secondary laces, tongues, tabs, and colors. Lots 01 and 50 departed more noticeably from that base.
“The 50” does not mean only fifty physical pairs existed worldwide, one of each version. Each number identifies a design configuration within the collection.
Distribution used SNKRS Exclusive Access in certain markets, giving invited users access to one of the Lots.
After Virgil: Posthumous releases and preserving the legacy
Virgil’s death in November 2021 did not mean every work still in development was canceled. Projects he created or developed continued to reach the public.
Air Force 1 Mid x Off-White
The Air Force 1 Mid x Off-White arrived in 2022 during the AF1’s 40th-anniversary celebrations. Its construction combined mesh, a secondary lacing system, and a sole with pointed elements inspired by the ISPA philosophy.
Terra Forma
The Off-White x Nike Terra Forma is a particularly important chapter. Introduced in 2022, it was the first original Nike sneaker designed from the ground up by Virgil and Nike designers, rather than a direct reconstruction of a classic model.
New colorways arrived in December 2023, showing that the project continued to develop within the designer’s legacy.
The Codes and the Virgil Abloh Archive
The Nike x Virgil legacy also came to be preserved outside commercial releases.
In 2022, Nike and Virgil Abloh Securities presented Virgil Abloh: The Codes c/o Architecture, a project devoted to the methodological principles he used across disciplines.
In 2025, Nike and the Virgil Abloh Archive brought Virgil Abloh: The Codes to the Grand Palais in Paris. The exhibition drew on an archive of more than 20,000 objects connected to Virgil’s creative practice and also highlighted his long Nike relationship.
That shift matters because it moves the conversation beyond “what is the next drop?” to a broader question: how to document the methods of a designer whose work crossed footwear, clothing, architecture, music, art, and communication.
Louis Vuitton x Nike is separate from Nike x Off-White
Virgil also designed an extensive Air Force 1 collection for Louis Vuitton while serving as the fashion house’s men’s artistic director.
Forty-seven designs were developed for Louis Vuitton’s men’s Spring-Summer 2022 collection. In 2022, 200 pairs of a special edition were subsequently offered in a Sotheby’s charity auction, followed by other commercial releases.
Although Virgil, Nike, and the Air Force 1 all appear in this story, it was a Louis Vuitton x Nike collaboration. Classifying it as Off-White x Nike is incorrect.
Resale does not define the collaboration’s importance
Many older Nike x Off-White shoes trade on the secondary market because they are no longer available through regular retail. Prices, however, continually change with size, condition, supply, and demand.
Compare prices at the time of purchase for the same size, condition, and set of accessories. An expensive listing alone does not prove someone paid that amount.
Sneakers should not be treated as guaranteed investments, either. Historical popularity and future financial returns are separate questions.
For an introduction to secondary-market platforms, see our guides to buying on StockX and GOAT.
How do you identify a fake Nike x Off-White sneaker?
No single visual detail can prove authenticity.
Zip ties, Helvetica text, orange tabs, exposed stitching, and inscriptions such as “AIR” and “SHOELACES” can all be reproduced by counterfeiters.
A serious assessment considers the whole pair: SKU, box, labels, materials, construction, typography, proportions, stitching, finish, product origin, and the particular edition’s specific features.
For expensive pairs, relying only on generic photos or an “original tag” is especially risky.
To place the collaboration within the company’s broader story, read the history of Nike.
For the wider context, explore Sneaker History and Culture: From Rubber Soles to a Global Movement.
Frequently asked questions
When was Off-White x Nike The Ten released?
Nike created the Off Campus program in New York and London, with presentations, discussions, and design activities. The five Revealing models had prereleases at NikeLab locations in New York, London, Milan, and Paris in September 2017. Main distribution began that November, but the translucent Converse Chuck Taylor arrived later, in May 2018.
What is the difference between Revealing and Ghosting in The Ten?
The project was divided into two five-model themes, Revealing and Ghosting. These were two design approaches within one project, rather than two independent collaborations. Revealing used a deliberately open, reconstructed design language. Exposed foam, displaced Swooshes, visible stitching, repositioned components, and inscriptions made the manufacturing process part of the look itself. Ghosting used translucent materials to create a visual connection among models from different eras and categories.
Does The 50 mean only 50 pairs were made?
In 2021, Nike and Virgil expanded the idea of variation through a large Dunk Low project known as The 50, or Dear Summer. The project featured 50 different Lots, numbered 01/50 through 50/50. Forty-eight used a relatively similar visual base, differentiated by combinations of materials, secondary laces, tongues, tabs, and colors. Lots 01 and 50 departed more noticeably from that base. “The 50” does not mean only fifty physical pairs existed worldwide, one of each version. Each number identifies a design configuration within the collection.
Does an Off-White zip tie prove a sneaker is authentic?
The industrial zip tie became one of Off-White’s most recognizable design symbols. It is not a certificate of authenticity, however. Counterfeiters can reproduce it, so its presence alone proves nothing about a pair’s origin.
Is the Louis Vuitton x Nike Air Force 1 an Off-White collaboration?
Virgil also designed an extensive Air Force 1 collection for Louis Vuitton while serving as the fashion house’s men’s artistic director. Forty-seven designs were developed for Louis Vuitton’s men’s Spring-Summer 2022 collection. In 2022, 200 pairs of a special edition were subsequently offered in a Sotheby’s charity auction, followed by other commercial releases. Although Virgil, Nike, and the Air Force 1 all appear in this story, it was a Louis Vuitton x Nike collaboration. Classifying it as Off-White x Nike is incorrect.
