What is Nike Sacai?
Nike is famous for its collaborations with various notable celebrities and fashion designers. Once again, it’s formed yet another partnership with Chitose Abe and the Sacai brand. Sacai is a Japanese brand and Nike has joined forces in a womenswear collection with Abe as the genius behind the design influences. Her design team consists of Junya Watanabe and Rei Kawakubo to create a collection of urban and sporty, yet edgy footwear designs, according to Miss Bish.
What is Nike Sacai?
Nike Sacai is a new collection with a lineup of sneakers for 2021. Abe of Sacai sifted through Nike’s archives to find the ideal models to work with the Sacai designs to develop a collection of 8 new sneakers featuring elements of the Sacai aesthetic with its trademark bright colors. She specializes in the use of innovative material and playful designs in her approach to design for women’s sportswear which offers some exciting new options for Nikes fans who are ready for something new. Chitose Abe has a unique approach to design with a keen awareness of form and silhouette and an appreciation for classic designs.
The NikeLab x Sacai collection
You can expect to see a few new designs borne of existing Nike elements with Nike Tech bringing in a new collection featuring mesh lace trims in two weights that reveal innovation in fabric development, thanks to Abe. She is known for developing new fabric ideas seasonally. When you combine this focus with Nike’s habit of developing new technologies we’re likely looking at a boundary-pushing new fabric combination that boosts performance and delivers a new aesthetic in the process.
Not a new collaboration
According to Anbbot, the first Nike Sacai sneakers were released in 2019, but work with Chitose Abe started way back in 2015. The initial collaboration began with a collection of 8 pieces along with a redesign of the Nike Air Max 90 in a women’s collection. The present Nike Sacai’s expand with a larger line of products that take classic designs from the brand for a big refresh. The 2019 Nike Sacai collection released the Nike Waffle and the Nike Blazer featuring double laces. and a few new colorways added to the Green Multi and the Blue Multi with a pair borrowed from the Blazer model in the Snow Beach and the Black Legend. The hype was intense and it’s led to a fascination for the now 2-year-old sneakers going for high prices. The resale value for the Nike Sacai Blazer colorways ranges between $317 and $345 and the Nike Sacai LS Waffle between $449 to $562, depending on the colorway.
Nike Sacai SS20 Talk
The Nike Sacai partnership is just getting started. In the spring of 2020, they dropped two new colorways in the LDWaffle line in monochromatic black and white with a new nylon fabric taking the place of the mesh used in the upper. The Covid pandemic slowed production lines but the brands are still doing work behind the scenes to deliver yet more options for the new 2021 year.
News about Nike Sacai new sneaker drops for 2021
L’Officiel reported in January of 2021 that the Nike Sacai line was pushed back significantly, but the work has continued to develop new colorways. News of a new Nike Vaporwaffle sneaker with thick stitching, a double Nike Swoosh, and an elevated collar was leaked, but without any indication of a release date for the full collection.
Laced confirms that the 2021 lineup of Nike Sacai sneakers will move forward with a new Sacai x Nike Vaporwaffle offered in multiple colorways. It’s a teaser that was verified at Paris Fashion Week with design elements taken from the Pegasus Vaporfly and the Pegasus Vaporwaffle. The sneakers will feature a series of distinctive design elements including the layering that the Sacai influence has delivered featuring a unique design approach to the sides of the Black and White and Sail Sport Waffle in a spray-painted top and one with stitching.
We expect to see changes to the heel of the LD Waffle with a shelf to the back of the sneaker that takes it to new levels of extremism. Since Sacai has entered the scene there have been some exciting new variants of the older classics offered and it’s akin to breathing new life into some of the older favorites. You can’t really classify the Sacai lineup as retro because they’re such new and modern iterations of the classic designs that it’s like getting brand new variant models. The public really hasn’t had much of a chance to become fully acquainted with the Sacai sneakers because the thrust of the collaboration was underway when the pandemic hit, pulling attention away from the unfolding partnership that has so far, delivered some of the most interesting new designs that Nike has seen in some time.
Final thoughts
For 2021, we expect to see more news about the collaboration between Nike and the Japanese fashion brand Sacai. They’ve already released several interesting colorways since the beginning of the partnership in 2015, with sneaker releases creating hype in 2019. The timing was a bit off due to the pandemic that forced the new designs to be pushed back from their original timeline for release. This hasn’t stopped them from moving forward. We’re still awaiting news of the release date for the new models that are rumored to be on track for the 2021 model year. With spring afoot, we’re hoping for news of a few new models surfacing soon. For now, you can still find new Nike Sacai’s in a variety of models and colorways available with 2019 models going for inflated prices over the original MSRP. We’d say that the partnership has been as successful as possible within the current constraints, and we’re looking for things to break loose in 2021.
