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André Benjamin, known to the world as André 3000, is among the rare genius level talents that humbly won’t admit that he is one. Among the early perceived indicators of genius is doodling, something Andre often did when he was younger, scribbling on his Tretorn Nylites – a shoe that he and his friends wore prominently when the brand was having a moment in Atlanta back in the ’90s. Now, more than two decades later, André is re-visiting those doodles for his Tretorn brand collaboration where he serves as Creative Director.
Working in conjunction with footwear designer and Tretorn consultant, Jeff Staple, the Reed Space founder revealed that André brought roughly 15 sketchbooks that he’s used over the last 20 years to the early design meetings. Many of them were from his time in grade school back in Atlanta, where he tinkered with rugby stripes and whimsical colors over funky, prep-enthused Nylites. André, over time, also re-imagined a Tretorn handcourt style as a modern-day basketball sneaker.
His creative thoughts – some elder and others more timely – were taken and executed by Staple, who handled the technical side of developing and fleshing out said ideas. André, though, remained hands on throughout the process and all subsequent design application. The outcome is a wide assortment of styles with some clearly lifestyle inspired, other more sports centric, and a few that simply display the inner thoughts of 3000 that only he could explain. Many of the models used for the collection were completely overhauled from top to bottom.
He also took painstaking efforts to design the product packaging, reportedly taking as long to execute as the sneakers themselves. Each box is personally touched by 3000 himself through handwritten calling cards that read “I, André Benjamin, will not draw in class,” traveling back to those elder days when doodles were just doodles and resulted in detention, not collaborative dealings with time-honored footwear brands.
André 3000’s Tretorn sneaker collection is available now at Tretorn with wider distribution at retailers like KITH coming this December.
Source: GQ Style
