European Artists Collaborate with Footlocker for Wearable Art Collection

Foot Locker Europe recently launched its new Spring 21 Campaign ‘Wear More Art’ – celebrating Street Art and Tattoo culture across Europe – with the release of an exclusive collection of sneakers and apparel for men, women and kids. The collection will be distributed in two phases: the first plays homage to street art, the collection is now available online and in-store, with the Tattoo range to follow in May.

To mark the launch of the new collection Foot Locker have partnered with Italian street artist Rediet Longo, known as RED, and British tattooist Jade Chanel. The two creatives were invited to illustrate the campaign – creating a series of sneaker illustrations accompanying the collection encouraging Foot Locker’s community to Wear More Art. Their artworks will be shown in-store as well as supporting the Wear More Art campaign online.

RED has also created a mural in Milan to represent the unity of the city’s ethnically diverse youth. The Italian artist held a creative workshop in collaboration with charity ‘Paint the Change’, inviting Milan’s kids to bring their thoughts, ideas and creative vision to the session.  

In creating his artwork for the campaign RED was inspired by the urban world of Milan and commented: “Combo sneakers and streets are part of my daily routine, 'sneakers inspired by art' and 'art inspired by sneakers' are my personal manifesto when deciding what to wear. I couldn’t be happier partnering with Foot Locker. Comfort is key when it comes to sneakers and Foot Locker’s concepts of 'WEAR MORE ART' and 'SAVE THE YOUTH' are always has on my mind while creating collaborations and art projects.” 

London-based tattoo artist Jade Chanel has created designs to support the tattoo-inspired side of the collection. Famous for her fine line tattoos of floral and animal designs, as well as lush Egyptian scenes, Jade is part of a progressive wave in contemporary tattooing which promotes empowerment, compassion and inclusivity. 

Jade commented: “For this project, I drew inspiration from my tattoo style. I’m known for my nature and floral elements which have lots of intricate, fine line detailing but I also use a technique called cross-hatching which helps keep my design transferable into a clean stencil, which is then applied to the skin. This worked perfectly for this project as I had to display different textures for these iconic sneakers. I’m so proud to be working with Foot Locker on this project and can’t wait for people to see my art in May 2021.”

Due to the nature of the collection, Foot Locker customers will have to move quickly to get their hands on the unique versions of iconic silhouettes such as Nike Tuned 3, adidas Hardcourt, Puma Cali Sport, Converse UNT1TL3D, Nike Tuned 1 and adidas Superstar.

Carmen Seman, vice president of marketing for Foot Locker in Europe, said: “We’re very excited about the new Spring 21 collection. Season by season, we aim to collaborate with artists and creatives across Europe to give them a platform to express themselves and share their stories.”

“This spring, we wanted to celebrate creativity and decided to highlight our community’s passion for street and tattoo art with these special sneakers and apparel collections. The Spring collection turned pop culture into wearable art and is aimed at those who want to make a bold fashion statement. We hope this will inspire our community to get creative and share their voices through art.”

The Street Art-inspired part of the collection is now available to purchase both online on Footlocker EU store and in store across Europe, with the tattoo-inspired pieces dropping in May. 

The Wear More Art Spring 21 campaign has been created in collaboration with AnalogFolk.