Everything You Need to Know About Stash's Reebok Question Collab

Stash has designed his share of silhouettes with Reebok, but he's never worked on one of the brand's most-known silhouettes, the Question. But putting together the collaboration wasn't as clear cut of a process as you'd think. "The Question was a model that I had known about and seen, and one day in the product room at the Reebok offices," Stash said. "Ryan Cross and I talked about doing the model, had an opportunity to do it, sampled it, and then it got put to bed for a minute. That's because it wasn't in the plans at the time. I just had an idea, and we sampled it. Then it just came to life after the sample came back."

Every collaboration usually has a few snags along the way, but Stash found the Question to be a simple sneaker to apply his work on. "It was straight forward working on the Question. It's a heavily defined shoe when you look at it in a 2D drawing. It's easy to colorblock and pick out fabrications. And that's what I like about sneakers like that," Stash said. "You can see the construction and how it was made. I like working on sneakers like that. You make a sample, you make a few refinements, and you're off to the races."

Stash and Concepts have a history of working together, and it was almost a no-brainer decision to release his Question at the Cambridge, Mass. shop. "I was fortunate to have Concepts as an early buyer for my brand, Subware. I developed a relationship with the owner, Tarek, Deon, and the other people who became part of the family that is Concepts," Stash said. "We always like to include each other in things. Concepts is in the backdoor of Reebok's offices in Canton, Mass., so it made sense to do something locally. We're always doing something so far away. So i was like, 'Hey, can we do something?"

At the Concepts release, Stash was selling paintings, too. So, what's the story behind his artwork being included? "Everything came together at the same time when we talked about doing promotional work. I thought, wouldn't it be great to tell a bit about who I am. Because, they know the story of the basketball player, the shoe, and his history," Stash said. "So let's tell a little bit of my history to coincide, instead of just, 'He made a color way.' The deconstruction of the colorway of the shoe, the style of painting i'm working on with the color disruption series—it's kind of derived from the way I do projects. I wanted it to be more than, 'Hey, I did a shoe.' And I wanted to connect with my history of being a graffiti artist and being a designer.

Stash has become known for his now-signature color scheme which includes shades of blue and grey, but will we ever see him abandon his trademark within the sneaker community? "I've done a lot of other stuff, but nobody talks about it. So, am I going to get away from it? Or is the audience going to allow me to not include that in my library as a staple of what I do? It's become my branding," Stash said. "It's become an icon without even using my name, and that's something that I didn't even do. The people did: The audience, the Internet, the fanzines. And I laugh to myself like, 'Wow, that really works.' Now, was it the timing when I applied, was it the model I introduced with that same mentality? I don't know. I'm still seeking and searching and trying to define it. No matter how many sneakers I put to market, it's this package that seems to resonate. I don't know if it's as much as me wanting to do it as it's expected for my portfolio to have that occurrence."

This isn't Stash's first collaboration or the first sneaker brand he's worked with. He's seen the industry progress and change over the past decade or so. So what's changed? "There's a better understanding of how corporations work with artists. It's a better fit, the machine is set up. It's natural now," Stash said. "At first, creating these identities with these brands was very difficult. They're on a super highway, and they have to downshift to get on the auxiliary road and deal with guys like us. I saw the early stages to where it is now. It's a much different place now. We were the guinea pigs, and it happened to stick and work. But at the end of the day, it's the audience. If they respond to it, you're winning. It's the consumer that supports what you do, and there's a little bit of weight on the brand—but it's all on the collaborator."

There are always sneakers that people dream of designing, but for Stash, those sneakers are on the way. "There's stuff that I'm working on that I haven't put out yet. There's things that I've wanted to fuck with that I'm now seeing samples of and are coming out soon," Stash said. "So, for me, those are the highlight reels of the brand that I enjoyed growing up. Other things I've worked on are like, 'Hey, we'd like you to work on this model.' And that's being invited to tell the story of the brand. And that's awesome to be included in telling the heritage of a brand."

People can get intimidated by the artists, designers, and athletes they look up to in the sneaker community, but Stash likes to interact with his audience. "Heads are so educated today that they can probably tell me a thing or two, and I enjoy that," Stash said. "At these meet and greets, I like engaging with the audience. And I'm the first to ask, 'Hey, what's your name?'"