Inspired by zellige, the design of the limited edition Jordan Air Ship Zellige “evokes Opium’s Moroccan roots: the story before the store,” Nike says on its official website, specifying that Yace and Mounir, the co-founders of this Châtelet-based brand, specializing in sportswear since 2001, “have shown courage and pursued their passions to create a community-centered and successful store and creative platform.”
The two Franco-Moroccan friends have remained faithful to their initial objective, which is to “spread streetwear culture in the French landscape and inspire young people to bring original ideas to advance the culture,” recalls Nike, which draws attention to two elements featured on the special edition: the stars and the mosaic pattern inspired by Moroccan zellige, “a decorative enameled tile handmade in Morocco.”
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A promotional video filmed in Morocco and widely relayed on social networks, explains how this model came to be, between Casablanca and Paris. She recounts the stay in Casablanca of Allan Guenaoui, founder of Huncho Family, a brand that promotes Moroccan artisanal heritage, and of the rapper Nayra, “at the heart of their origins and traditional Moroccan art: zellige”, explains Opium on his Instagram page.
In the video, we see the two personalities visiting the Habous district where three elderly men, in djellabas and with the new Jordan Air Ship shoes on their feet, are playing a game of checkers. The two friends also visited the Aït Manos brand, a traditional zellige manufacturing workshop. A second video shows the two friends back in Paris who “draw inspiration from zellige in their workshop” to create the pattern on the Jordan Air Ship Zellige. The Jordan Air Ship Zellige will be sold at a price of 150 euros from June 29 on the Opium website.
