story

"Hi, my name's Chris Gibbs from UNION Los Angeles. My name is Beth Birkett Gibbs. We met in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn in 1996. There would've been a lot of knitted and woven products, very arts and crafty … "

" … and so that's what kind of inspired us to use the woven from the Footscape and fuse it with the AJ1 High. Our heritage is Afro-Caribbean, and so there's a lot of … "

" … basket weaving and stuff like that. So those were all the kind of thoughts. It's similar, this woman's shoe. I wanted to create a platform for not just the ladies, but anybody that feels like they need a little height".

"The thing where I'm like, 'Is this shoe going to be successful? Am I happy with it or not?' is top-down. I wanted to look down and see that the silhouette is right, and the top-down on this shoe is actually very unique, even to an AJ1, it's got a little bit more structure happening".

"The photos that are in the box originated with the apparel, basically cut the jersey out and then stitched it back on, washed it, allowed for some patina and that's why you have the kind of unfinished raw edges … "

" … and then screenprinted over top and then washed it again. Well, green is one of my favourite colours for what it represents, Earth, nature. This is with the wovens, an ode to my grandmother, who was Jamaican".

"Everything had this kind of mesh. For my part of the collection, specifically with the apparel, I didn't try to evolve it, I kind of just stayed in the past and made it kind of retro".

"Which is kind of a microcosm of our relationship and how we juxtapose with each other. Beth's constantly evolving, and I'm usually dragging behind".

"I'm Beth. I'm Chris, thanks for watching Behind the Design".

 Behind the Design: Air Jordan 1 x UNION x Bephies Beauty Supply 'Summer '96'