Prada Taps Artist Cassius Hirst to Update Its America's Cup Sneakers
Arriving in four styles: “ATT4CK,” “D3CAY,” “SUST4IN” and “REL3ASE.”
Prada has joined forces with artist Cassius Hirst — also known as Cass — to update the America’s Cup sneakers from its Linea Rossa line.
The collaboration features four styles with names inspired from the world of music. “ATT4CK” comes with molded spikes and is given a three-dimensional effect with crinkled spray paint, while “D3CAY” is given a distressed look with multiple layers of colors. “SUST4IN” is spray-painted with two different shades of the same color for a tonal look, and “REL3ASE” is a bicolor design with two contrasting colors sprayed on each side of the shoe. All four models feature Cass’ name repeatedly printed on the lacing system, and Prada’s iconic red stripe runs down the rear.
In an interview with HYPEBEAST, Cass explains that the spray paint theme came from when he was experimenting with painting Air Force 1s. “I would mask off part of the body of the shoe, and then wrap the whole shoe in the stencil. It looked crazy. And I kept taking photos of them when I was doing it,” he shares. “Compared to other sneakers, the Prada America’s Cup shoe is totally different. It actually confused me for a bit because I just thought: what can I do? I explored 3D design — I put a shoe inside a shoe, creating a new shoe but with the substance of both. And that felt so Prada — but that was too much. So then I began painting — I painted 44, trial and error, and narrowed down to 22. And then worked with the factory, to reproduce them.”
Peep the campaign above. Limited to 3,000 units worldwide, all four Cass x Prada America’s Cup styles in 22 iterations are now available online and at select Prada boutiques.
