There are several trains of thought when it comes to sneaker collaborations: Some like to play it safe, while others prefer to go all out and add as many materials as possible. Lately, Boston's Bodega has fallen into the latter category, but there's a method to the madness. In a recent interview with Sneaker Freaker, Oliver Mak and Dan Natola of Bodega both explain their design process and how it worked on their Reebok Ventilator collaboration.
"We usually approach [the collaboration] with the concept first and then color blocking, and then materials. And sometimes a concept overlaps with material, if it’s a material story," Natola says. "We like to throw around a bunch of ideas over a couple of beers and figure out something that makes sense from that."
For this particular product, the process was no different. "We’ve used a gum sole on the last couple of Reeboks that we’ve done. We’ve got a speckled midsole and then we’ve got all sorts of stuff going on up the top. That was just kind of an experiment of us going crazy design-wise," Mak says. "You’ve got tumbled leather on the branding, you’ve got this polka dot on Heather Gray fleece. And then, that’s contrasted by these suede panels that are color-popped. We kind of just wanted to flex as many different ideas as possible but still have it be considered wearable."
Mak also goes on to admit, "We’re just really influenced by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama."
The collaboration doesn't have a release date yet, but given how many Ventilators have released this year, it's likely dropping in the near future.
