Unique Sneakers Packaging Not Just for Kanye’s Louis Vuittons

Article written by: SoJones Asmara
Posted on: September 4, 2009

There’s a new hype striking the internet world and going straight into sneakerheads’ radar.  It’s the photo leak of the packaging for the Kanye West-designed Louis Vuitton footwear, and a little peek at the kicks themselves. 

The packaging alone is probably worth $100! Louis Vuitton is of course a high-end brand which will sell the shoes at $800  and Kanye West is a fashion icon/ hip hop royalty, we’d be surprised if they did anything less. 

Some other brands that were thinking “outside the box” when it came to creative packaging:

French tennis shoes brand Spring Court designed tin boxes for their limited edition shoes.  Makes perfect sense, to keep your tennis kicks fresh and protected at all times. The graphic design is cool too.

Next is the Nike x Transformers Bumblebee, packaged in an inviting action-toy package.  Remember the rush of getting your toy fresh out from Toys ‘R Us?  Nike perfectly captured the playful spirit.

And Nike once again proved its excellent playfulness via the Nike x Coraline sneaker package.  The sneakers were inspired from “Coraline”, a full-feature animated movie directed by Henry Selick, adaptated from a book by Neil Gaiman.  The package featured whimsical props or “relics” from the movie, like cotton candy. Only 50 pairs of prop-filled boxes existed.

True to its nautical theme, the Concepts x Nike SB Blue Lobster Dunk kicks was released in a-200 limited edition package, nicely wrapped inside plastic bag, tagged and sealed in a HAZMAT foam container.  The June 29, 2009 release of the Blue Lobster also featured an official Nike SB tee shirt, hang tag and lace lock.  Quite a different touch from its predecessor, the Lobster, released in April, which featured the ‘cooked’ version of Lobster.  The Blue Lobster has an overall scuba feel to it.

Promoting an environmentally conscious attitude, Newton Sneakers commissioned TDA Advertising and design to create a sustainable packaging concept for their products.

Too bad it wasn’t released. An official statement posted at TheDieLine website released by Ian Anderson of Backbone Media stated:

“The shoebox featured in this story was designed by our advertising agency and submitted to several design competitions. We liked this design but after a lot of research we discovered it is not very sustainable for us to produce or ship the molded pulp shoe boxes.

We learned that not only were the pulp boxes significantly more expensive to make, but they are produced far from the footwear factory and they would dramatically increase overall freight costs because they do not stack in containers, warehouses or retail stores efficiently (as predicted in several comments).

Newton has instead developed a new rectangular shoebox that is produced from 100% post consumer waste and uses soy-based inks. The new packaging is easy to store and ship, it’s lightweight and it’s easy to break down and recycle.”

And with that, they released this version:

And finally, who knew that the most interesting shoe package came from a student who was still in college when she designed it.  Behold the concept packaging for Adidas, designed by Jenny Kim of Capilano University.

And this is Jenny’s concept of the “Milli” packaging design:

“The name Milli is short for ‘millimeters,’  the unit that measures the size of bullets. It is also short for ‘millisecond,’ which is often the margin of victory in a foot race. The shoe is placed inside a bullet-shaped box, a symbol of power and speed.”

So, still think Kanye’s LV kicks have the best packaging?

Photo credits: Culture Shoq, CtoTheJL, Holesinmysole, PopSop, SneakerNews, another SneakerNews, TheBlotSays