Concept Lab // Carhartt x Air Jordan 3

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About 12 months ago I was in conversation with the head of Jordan Brand NRG Gemo Wong about concepts, and storytelling. Before too long, the conversation turned to materials. I told him that I’d always wanted to see — especially on the lower-cut of the Air Jordan 3— was canvas. The fabrication has been sparingly used by the Brand, only popping up on a handful of retro releases over the years. For footwear, its a material that’s always intrigued me. Living out here in Australia, the canvas shoe is a staple. It’s lightweight, breathable, and heavy-duty, and it makes the perfect year-round wear — especially with our nation’s scorching year-round heat. Needless to say, it’s a concept I’ve been looking at rendering up for a long time, and finally, that day has come.

If I were ever to get the opportunity to build a pair from the ground up, I would look no further than Carhartt as the fabricator of choice. That’s a given. There are many colorways I’ve had in mind; completely tonal off-white, earthy herringbone and houndstooth, and classic black. I decided to roll with tan and black for a handful of reasons; firstly, the palate is on-trend. Secondly, the Air Jordan 3 has historically been limited to white and black-based colorways, typically complemented by primary colors. I wanted to distance this pair from the pack. And finally, Carhartt is a renowned workwear brand. And nothing screams workwear like tan. Darkened Elephant print is also rarely used, but compliments the accompanying black accents perfectly, and the use of sail over white softens the entire offering — white was just too piercing.

Perhaps, now that this concept is done, I should reach back out to Gemo for his thoughts and maybe, just maybe, we might see something like this hit stores in the near future.

Wanna see more of our sneaker concept work? You can check out every single one of them right here.