Opium has been facilitating sneaker-addiction since October 2001, five meagre months prior to Mark Parker adding their Parisian retail space to Nike’s extensive array of high profile stockists.
Another three years passed and something immensely special floated to the surface - once inhabiting sneaker-earth’s DARKEST depths, we were given a camo-heavy, aggressively colour-blocked Air Max 180 that spared NO punches. In fact, many herald it as one of the sneaker’s best iterations of all time. 2005’s Premium Priority, or QK pack was one of two halves - a second falling into Soho’s lap.
Taking the title as one of MANY silhouettes to make that hard-pushed journey from Tinker Hatfield’s ‘91 mind into shelf-residing product, the Air Max 180 boasted one hundred and EIGHTY degrees of unadulterated, unchartered AIR.
Back to centre, Opium lathered an upper in sheets of premium leather and home bound 180 neoprene comfort - familiar desert patterns broke the mould in wrapping both heel cup AND tongue, all paired with injections of neon yellow accentuation without forgetting COMET RED here, there and everywhere.
Custom insoles are the glue that has pulled together collaborations for years, perhaps going as far to complete an already palatable concoction - a silver platter above all else. These were coated in repetitive multi-font ‘PARIS’ type.