Hiroshi Fujiwara on his latest Nike collab: ‘I don’t like to explain what I’m doing’

The original streetwear designer shares his new designs for the Nike Air Liquid Max, Mind 001, and Mind 002—while keeping his design intent close to the chest.

Hiroshi Fujiwara is perhaps the most dramatically lit person I’ve ever interviewed on Zoom.

Joining me at his preferred time (midnight) from Tokyo, the man known as the godfather of streetwear—who launched his own label at 26, was among the first hip-hop DJs in Japan, wrote a regular column for Popeye, and now runs his own consultancy, Fragment—has met with me to discuss his latest collaborations with Nike.

But when I dig in, asking about the hidden details lurking in his shoes? He admits, “I don’t really want to talk about it,” without an ounce of rudeness. “Sometimes, if you see a movie and you don’t really get the ending, you have to guess what [the creators] think. I like that kind of situation.”

In a world of overt and overstated sneaker collabs, Fujiwara prefers to operate with a soft touch. The semiotics of streetwear like much of fashion are born from winks and nods—an “if you know you know” mentality. His three new pieces for Nike celebrate that. At the same time, Fujiwara insists he isn’t only trying to build enigmas that “people can investigate it forever.” When he visits Nike, he still designs the shoes he’d like to wear.

“I always like black shoes!”

His three new shoes start with his take on Nike’s new Air Liquid Max (April 1, $225)—an organic expansion of its Air Max technology, where the air bubbles almost seem to melt or morph underfoot like the toes of a tree frog. He didn’t touch the materiality or the silhouette. And you’ll need to squint to notice the light white text like “Fragment Concept Testing” on the side. But he turned the swoosh chrome, and filled the three printed layers of pigment on top of the shoe with various flavors of black. I imagine that in person it almost shimmers like snakeskin (which wouldn’t be the first or even second time Fujiwara used animal textures on a sneaker). 

“I always like black shoes!” Fujiwara says. “I like colorful shoes also, but I wanted to have the black one for myself. Especially that shoe. I always like those air bag shoes. Many [designers] want to do the Jordan 1, Air Force One, or Dunk. No one really want to touch the newest things. I always do that.”

For the Mind 001 (March 18, $95)—Nike’s brain-calming slide shoe, which uses little nubs in the bottom to activate a sense of mindfulness—Fujiwara also wanted to go with black. But for the nubs, he chose blue. Black and “military blue” are the trademark colors of Fragment. 

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