While avant garde designer Rick Owens is well known for draping goth ninjas in his signature black duds, most don't realize that he actually received a cease and desist from Nike over some kicks he once designed.
Back in 2008 Owens sought to change the way sneakers looked because there were none that suited his taste. "I always thought athletic shoes were so dreary and prosaic," Owens tells Complex in an exclusive interview. So what did he do?
He designed a Frankenstein high-top sneaker called the Geobasket with a logo that combined elements from several iconic sneaker brands, with Nike's Swoosh being the most prominent inspiration. "If I was gonna wear them I wanted monster trucks on my feet. So I made my own parody combining Puma, Nike, and adidas motifs," Owens reveals.
With such an obvious design inspiration at the forefront of the shoe it's not surprising that Beaverton took notice. "I swooned with flattery when Nike sent me a cease and desist," Owens admits. With legal issues looming, Owens was forced to redesign the logo and eventually turned it into an inverted triangular line.
Like most sneakers that get discontinued, those 2008 Geobaskets are now worth a shit ton of money and can run upwards of $2,000.
Check out the full interview here to find out how the dark lord of menswear flipped the industry on its head and how A$AP Rocky and hip-hop influenced Owens' aesthetic.
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