Louis Vuitton and Nike ‘Air Force 1’ by Virgil Abloh

Last year when the Louis Vuitton Air Force 1s were first announced, we took a look at the bootleg AF1s of the past

that paved the way for the unprecedented partnership. Proper respects were paid to Canadian GOAT Raif Adelberg, who made LV Swooshes by sacrificing real Vuitton bags to the custom sneaker gods. But this morning news around the release of the shoe broke, and anyone who’s familiar with how they rolled out the Nike Air Mag might be having traumatic flashbacks on how that shoe became impossible to get. WWD broke the news the LV Forces will first launch with an auction, with the floor price being set at $2,000. “Two hundred pairs of the limited-edition Louis Vuitton and Nike ‘Air Force 1’ by Virgil Abloh sneakers will go on sale through sothebys.com, with proceeds going to the Virgil Abloh “Post Modern” Scholarship Fund,” writes WWD.But don’t fret, even though this particular pair is limited to 200 (and the F&F pairs featuring monochromatic embossed uppers in hues like orange for Ibn Jasper and green for Kim Jones similarly won’t see a wider release), Virgil Abloh purportedly designed 47 different colorways of the sneaker before his untimely passing. So the release could play out similarly to how “The 50” Dunks were dropped, with more pairs going to people who had caught less Ws in the past. Of course, the best-case scenario (and something equally revolutionary) would be if LV and Nike simply agree to make the Vuitton Forces a recurring seasonal staple, no doubt being able to move countless pairs at $2k each. After all, Supreme threw a box logo on the heel of the iconic sneaker and still manages to sell out after each seasonal refresh.