Patta x Jordan VII Collection
Patta recently worked on a capsule collection with the Jordan Brand, launching May 18th 2019. The collection, consisting of the Air Jordan VII “Patta,” a track suit, shorts, T-shirt and boonie hat, This is the first time Jordan Brand has partnered with a European brand. For Patta’s Guillaume Schmidt and Vincent van de Waal, the Jordan VII was the only logical starting point for working with Jordan Brand. Launched in ’92, and subsequently eternally tied to that summer’s USA Basketball team, it arrived at a transformative point in both men’s youth and their respective interest in the culture they live and work in.
“It was a golden era for hip-hop and a big year for me, a lot of very important albums that I still carry with me came out between '92 and '96. And aesthetically, those years had such colourful imagery and strong connections to black empowerment. The VII and its geometric patterns also have a reference to Africa,” says Schmidt, a native of Suriname who grew up an hour from Amsterdam in basketball-crazed 's Hertogenbosch. Van de Waal, Patta’s creative director, was drawn to the Jordan VII’s elegant shape and the minimal marking (it is the first Jordan without any Nike branding). Today, Van de Waal is effusive about the shoe stating, “It is my all-time favourite.”
The footwear itself plays only part of the story, as both Schmidt and Van de Waal recognised immediately the power of the full package surrounding the VII. “The VII apparel was out of this world. The products that we worked on come straight from a short Jordan clip from Barcelona that became super famous. It features a segment where Michael walks past a huge billboard of himself where he's got the shoes on, and that image has been forever etched in my memory,” says Gee.
Reviving the patterns of those original garments, Patta is also able to tie in its branding subtly though incorporation of the script logo and “TEAM PATTA” word marks. “We see ourselves as a strong team where everyone has their place, so the concept of ‘TEAM PATTA’ has always been important to our history,” says Van de Waal. The Patta x Jordan Collection releases May 18th at Patta’s Amsterdam and London locations, as well as on patta.nl. It will launch June 15th on the SNKRS and SNEAKRS app, and at select retailers.
