Days after its long-awaited sale, Reebok unveiled the second installment in its collaboration with the historic interior design house Eames Office Thursday.
Set to debut later this month, the Reebok x Eames – Club C “Dot Pattern & Composition Pack” channels the designs of Ray Eames. She and her husband Charles Eames, the founders of Eames Office, worked together for decades, starting in the 1940s. Examples of their iconic Eames Lounge Chair, one of their most famous works, are part of the permanent collection of New York City’s Museum of Modern Art.
The Club C “Composition” draws inspiration from Ray Eames’ 1939 painting “Composition,” decking the shoe out with a similar assortment of abstract shapes and natural tones. A stitching of the artist’s handwritten signature adds a personal connection to the designer.
The pack’s other entry, the Club C “Dot Pattern,” covers the upper in the “Dot Pattern” textile print the Eames Office submitted—it was not ultimately selected—to the Museum of Modern Art’s 1947 Competition for Printed Fabrics. The design, referred to on the Eames Office’s website as the “most recognized textile design by Ray Eames,” consists of a field of dots connected by thin lines.
In both cases, Reebok hewed as close to the original 1985 Club C design as possible—an embrace of Eames “seemingly contradictory edicts of ceaseless improvement and innovation as a last resort,” it said. Though the brand allowed for improvements in materials and process, the shoes resurrect heritage accents such as original size tongue tags, squared-off window boxes, die-cut tooling and original Eames and Reebok logos.
The two styles will come in a specially designed shoebox modeled after Charles and Ray Eames’ suburban Los Angeles home. The shoes will become available on Eames Office’s website March 17 and on Reebok’s website and at select retailers March 18.
Reebok first teased its collaboration with Eames Office last March. The first two styles arrived seven months later. Those simple, monotone designs saw the brand take a similar retro approach to the Club C silhouette, while also adding woven Eames tags and a colorful triangle-print insole. This month’s drop will mark the brands’ final Club C release.
Last week, Reebok announced that Authentic Brands Group had finalized its acquisition of the brand. The $2.46 billion transaction saw Reebok leave Adidas after 16 years together.