Air Jordan Air Jordan 1 x V.A.A Mens Retro High OG SP "Alaska" Shoes

Virgil Abloh Archive™ and Jordan Brand release the Air Jordan 1 High OG X V.A.A., a V.A.A. edition of an original design by the late Virgil Abloh (1980–2021). This marks the first global release of a work drawn from the Virgil Abloh Archive™, a collection of over 20,000 objects spanning Virgil's creative practice, with a new release of the historic design partnership between Nike and Virgil Abloh that began in 2017.

The Air Jordan 1 was the shoe that inspired Virgil's journey to become a designer. He was drawn to objects that showed how they were made, that wore their construction openly rather than hiding it. When Nike presented the opportunity to re-approach it for The Ten in 2017, he arrived on campus not with a presentation but with a question: where's the airbag? He picked up an X-Acto knife and punctured the sole to find out. "If there is an airbag," he said, "then I'm going to write the word 'AIR' on it."

Revealing — to make the hidden visible — became a central pillar of Virgil's early design language. His work spoke to how things were produced, materially and culturally, and through a set of visual motifs. The Air Jordan 1 High OG X V.A.A. features Virgil's signature exposed tongue, orange tab on the Swoosh, and black 'AIR' lettering printed directly over Nike's classic air unit on the midsole.