Nike SB Is Making Olympic Skateboarding Stylish (Again)
Skateboarding made a stylish entrance into the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. The sport’s first time competing in the Olympics, Nike SB jumped on the opportunity for gold-medal-worthy skate gear and linked up with Dutch artist Piet Parra to create a series of uniforms that ended up holding resale value.
Now, we’re mere days away from the 2024 Paris Olympics and Nike SB has the task of outshining last year’s sought-after skate uniforms. For skateboarding’s second year in the Olympics, Nike’s skate-focused line has linked up with Alexis Sablone.
The professional skater (she narrowly missed out on a podium finish in the 2021 Olympic Games), architect, and artist was tasked with designing the 2024 Olympic skateboarding federation kits for the United States and Japan.
“The concept of uniforms is really, like foreign to skateboarding. I think so much of skating is about individuality and expressing yourself through not just like the tricks you do or the spots you choose but also what you choose to put on,” says Sablone in a video diving into the designs she created. “So because of that, I wanted to make as diverse a range as I could.”
The vast selection goes from colorful sportswear to hard-wearing takes on workwear classics, each decorated with a specially-made crest for Japan and the USA (as well as a kit made for an agnostic team).
The Dri-FIT jerseys have a look reminiscent of typical sports kits with a crest on the left chest, Nike SB’s logo on the opposite side, and a variety of colorful patterned finishes.
These beautiful, graphic-heavy jerseys are joined by more plain hoodies and bowling shirts, building out the diverse range that Sablone wanted to create. Plus, dungarees and chore coats are built from durable ripstop cotton, a hard-wearing, techy take on staple workwear styles — a similar approach to that used for Nike SB’s $200 skate denim.
The Japan, USA, and an agnostic Nike SB Olympic kit are available now in select regions on Nike’s website and select skate stores.
The previously-teased Sablone-designed Nike SB Dunk Lows and signature Converse CONS AS-1 Pro sneakers are yet to be for sale, however (those are scheduled to be released in August).
The 2024 Olympics has been serving great style moments before it has begun, including Stéphane Ashpool’s streetwear-indebted French kits and Mongolia's traditional opening and closing ceremony outfits. We’re set for another year of wild Olympic style moments.
