After turning heads by announcing Rihanna as his soul mate in a GQ cover story, Harlem rapper A$AP Rocky continued to stir the pot by again claiming in a follow up video that his crew was responsible for breathing life back into Nike‘s Air Force 1 sneaker in the mid-aughts.
In an exchange with GQ examining his outfit choices, Rocky explained, “To make it clear I just want to say when we came out, Air Force 1s was dead, especially mid-tops. We brought the Uptowns back, that was just a Harlem thing. I guess we were one of the first to start rocking mid-tops for our era and sh*t. Aw f*ck that, I was the first motherf*cker rocking Air Force 1s in 2010, ’11 and ’12. F*ck that modest sh*t.”
Rocky first claimed ownership of the Air Force 1 trend in a 2015 interview, which resurfaced on social media in April 2020. In the video, he claimed, “Coming out with the Air Force 1 thing, man, I lie to you not,” Rocky said. “You can ask my manager, it was all premeditated. I said, listen, I’m gonna wear these whack sneakers. It was 2011. I said I’m a wear these whack sneakers just to test the scene.”
In the visual, Rocky also confirmed he’s working on a collaboration with Vans on a Slip-On silhouette, though he didn’t provide any further details on timing of the launch.
When asked why he hadn’t yet collaborated with Nike, Rocky initially answered, “‘Cause Nike sucks,” but went on to say he’d like to collaborate with Nike, Adidas, Puma and Converse. He added that working with Nike wouldn’t be likely because of the brand’s conservative approach to design when working with collaborators. “Is it actualy design when it’s already an established sneaker?” Rocky asked.
Check out Rocky’s exchange with GQ below, along with his original statement on starting the Air Force 1 trend.
ASAP Rocky talking about he started the trend of wearing Air Force 1’s then talking about their “wack” bruh GTFO 🧢 pic.twitter.com/DSytg78xCR
— 🤙🏽 (@mrpcurry) April 23, 2020
