Andre 3000 and Jeff Staple have teamed up to design a full footwear collection with Tretorn which is now available at Tretorn, with a wider release at retailers like Kith starting next month.
Andre, who grew up in Atlanta, used to draw unique versions of the white canvas sneakers in class as a kid and he used the inspiration from those designs to create his first ever collaborative sneaker collection.
According to GQ, the collection includes updated Tretorn Nylites, a new basketball model, and an assortment of slides. As mentioned, André worked with footwear designer and Tretorn consultant Jeff Staple on the project.
Staple, who has collaborated with a number of brands since his iconic Nike SB Dunk Low "Pigeon" release, told GQ he was surprised by André’s level of involvement in the project.
“You never know what you’re going to get when a celebrity walks into the room,” says Staple. “But [André] was super involved in the process. This wasn’t a phoned-in collab.”
“One of the things André really wanted to do was reconstruct it from the ground up,” Staple said. “So a new outsole, new midsole, new last, new reinforcement points. That was all his call.”
In fact, Staple says Andre showed up with 15 sketchbooks from the last 20 years which resulted in a wide range of sneaker designs including some preppy, some street-wear oriented, and some that are completely outside the box.