Dubbed a 'cult favourite' and a 'certified classic', the Nike Sock Dart is an piece of inspired footwear that has been truly engineered. A brain child from Tobie Hatfield, it rethinks the way we look at footwear and has become a collectors item since it's incarnation in 2002. In collaborating once more, Stone Island and NikeLab have combined to shine with this trophy from the top table.
Quite the revolutionary piece, an essential ingredient to the shoe’s aesthetic success was its computerized knit upper - in turn, the first step in the innovation now known as Nike Flyknit. In teaming up with Stone Island, it has enabled two homes of innovative thinking to pair up to enable the shoe to embark on a fresh phase of reinvention.
The nature of the Sock Dart means that it is a shoe that embodies revolutionary change in serving up new ideas. A perfect place for Stone Island to get on board considering their history of forever inventing through textile techniques. It's with this new wave of thinking in mind that the Sock Dart has landed here in a mid cut fashion. Water resistant too, this new offering comes skinned with a silicon print on the upper which has been born out of specialisms from both brands and Stone Island's firsthand experimentation with Nike’s sandwich mesh fabric in Italy.
Applying a direct approach to the development of new technologies, the Italian brand achieves a combined graphic look and advanced functionality. The engineered print — a first for Nike and a testament to Stone Island’s legacy of textile innovation — gives the shoe's upper a fading dégradé effect, guarantees both zonal protection and breathability and helps maintain the Sock Dart's signature flexibility.
For further weather protection, the strap’s characteristic holes are filled, and the collar is made of soft, supportive Ariaprene™. The forefoot of the shoe’s new outsole also has a multidirectional sipe pattern for water dispersion and improved traction. A smaller, co-branded version of the signature Stone Island badge is on the tongue of the shoe.
The NikeLab Sock Dart Mid x Stone Island is available from January 26 at NikeLab and Stone Island Flagship Stores.
