Charley Peters x Nike Air Jordan 4, 2022

Commissioned by Footpatrol London
Photographed by Tom Silvester

Commissioned by Footpatrol London to mark the launch of the Air Jordan 4 “Blank Canvas,” this project reframed the trainer as both surface and site. Rather than applying a predetermined design, the work emerged through sustained use within the studio, allowing paint, pigment and gesture to accumulate organically across the white leather.

Splashes, drips and layered colour built up through daily studio practice, recording the physical act of painting. The trainers functioned as mobile substrates, absorbing the residue of labour while remaining recognisably iconic objects within sneaker culture.

Situated within a campaign context, the project foregrounded process over finish. The gradual transformation of the shoe mirrored ongoing concerns within the wider practice around surface, mediation and the tension between pristine digital aesthetics and material reality. Here, the immaculate, mass-produced object was disrupted by the unpredictability of paint and movement.

By engaging with one of Nike’s most culturally loaded silhouettes, the work positioned studio practice within a broader field of contemporary visual culture. The collaboration extended painterly concerns beyond canvas and wall into the arena of fashion, performance and circulation, where authorship, branding and material trace intersect.