Reebok is getting a haute-couture boost with its latest creative partnership.
The athletic wear giant famous for its sneakers and lifestyle apparel announced a new, multi-season collaboration with French fashion house Maison Margiela this week, saying that the relationship aims to “push the boundaries of footwear.”
The collections will exemplify a devotion to “expert and progressive craftsmanship,” the Boston-based brand said in a statement, adding that the two labels’ first collaborative shoe, dubbed the Tabi Instapump Fury, will reevaluate the values of “bourgeois dressing.”
The style first debuted at Maison Margiela’s spring-summer 2020 artisanal show in Paris this past January, and will be available for purchase on Sept. 23. New sneaker styles will be released in 2021.
Maison Margiela creative director John Galliano, who has served as head designer for luxury labels like Givenchy and Christian Dior, as well as his eponymous brand, has blended the most recognizable elements of Reebok’s Instapump Fury sneaker and the fashion house’s split-toed shoe into one silhouette.
The inflation technology inherent in Reebok’s pump mechanism was developed in 1989, allowing wearers to inflate their kicks with air to provide a cushioned under-foot feel.
The two brands called the style “a statement shoe for the age of the cyber-industrial revolution,” which “builds on Maison Margiela’s analyses of the conversation between humanity and technology in the digital era.”
The Tabi Instapump Fury will be released in both heeled and flat versions, the statement said. This release will be Reebok’s first foray into creating an elevated version of the iconic sneaker. The flat silhouete calls to mind the sole aesthetic of Maison Margiela’s Retro Fit sneaker, which was released in 2018.
Both high and low versions of the Tabi Instapump Fury will be available exclusively at Maison Margiela’s Crosby Street concept store in New York beginning Sept. 22. They will be released on Reebok.com, MaisonMargiela.com and select Maison Margiela stores on Sept. 23.