Reebok x 11 by BBS

It’s rare that a design comes along and remains permanently innovative and unusual; even more so that it's still used and relevant. Reebok’s Instapump Fury is one of those designs, whether you’re looking at it today, when it was released in 1994, or 30 years from now: it’s difficult to imagine it not looking perplexing and “weird”, as often described.

Few shoes can compete with its level of lore, from the beginnings when legendary sneaker designer Steven Smith created it, to landing a place in the design museum of London or onto the Chanel runway. Its unconventional beauty has garnered fandom from some of the most wildly creative minds from Björk, to the enigmatic fashion designer Boris Bidjan Saberi.

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Saberi, whose eponymous brand holds equal lore and praise, is one of the few fashion designers still widely talked about as avant-garde and independent. His works look and feel both futuristic and historical, with a deeply personal penmanship that pushes detailed craft to extreme lengths. Lengths, where he’s known to even mold pieces onto his own body before they hit the shop floor.

In 2014, 20 years after the Instapump's release, Saberi’s label 11 by BBS collaborated on the sneaker for its anniversary — which to the designer’s surprise sold out rapidly. It’s now 30 years later and he’s teamed up with Reebok, this time on a ’90s skateboarding-inspired capsule collection. Arriving in two colourways of black and white is a transformed Instapump Fury, along with a head-to-toe silhouette of ready-to-wear styles. For the release, Saberi drops 11 unknown facts about him and the long-lasting collaboration with Reebok.

1. What an avant-garde fashion designer has for breakfast: “I start every day with meditation and then have tea and coffee. I'm a very basic person and I use a moka pot, it's basically the most simple coffee that exists — also the cheapest.”

2. Boris isn’t taking siestas these days: “I did for a long time, but for maybe half a year now I transitioned into meditation because it’s more energising.”

3. His first atelier was built next to a sacred mountain: “So they say; in Monistrol de Montserrat within an old textile factory from 1830.”

4. He’s been a fan of Reebok’s Instapump Fury since it was released in 1994: “My first impression was ‘Wow, what did Reebok do here? A shoe with two heels — a front heel and a back heel, a huge space [in between], a platform and a shoe built on top?’ I thought it was a milestone for Reebok and I still think it is. Apart from the pump system, I always thought the shoe was genius, beautiful and brilliant — while at the same time it doesn’t really work. Sometimes beauty is the intention to make something beautiful, that in the end doesn’t work.”

5. In 1994 he was…: “Pretty much the same as today — a very sensitive, hard-feeling individual who wanted to give a lot to the world.”

INSTAPUMP FURY X 11 BY BBS

Design is in the details, and Boris Bidjan Saberi has brought the patterns and textiles from his own brand to the Instapump Fury. Notice the various messages, elevated sole, and higher rise on the ankle.

INSTAPUMP FURY X 11 BY BBS

Design is in the details, and Boris Bidjan Saberi has brought the patterns and textiles from his own brand to the Instapump Fury. Notice the various messages, elevated sole, and higher rise on the ankle.

6. In 1994 he was listening to Nas, Mobb Deep, Mos Def, and the song “You” by Bad Religion: “On my turntable, not a CD player. It was already a Technics 1210 MK2 — I have two of them now.”

7. The new Instapump Fury is much more than a unique colourway: “We did all the patterns here in Barcelona. I wanted to create it from scratch — for me a design has to be a complete story and not just make up. All the materials chosen are our own, from the various meshes to the same linings I use on my jackets. Even the rubber on the toe is one that I use for almost all of my sneakers; it comes from skateboarding to protect the laces from getting scratched. I made the shoe more aggressive, more extreme at the top, like a mid-high version, and when I look at it now, it has a stronger impact than the classic one.”

8. It was a coincidence that he collaborated on the Instapump Fury for both its 20th and 30th anniversary: “It was a miracle, a lucky moment. Both times the opportunity came to me and it was actually weird. In this case Reebok LTD reached out and in the previous case it was the shop 24 Kilates who wanted to present a model for the 20th anniversary. This time was really collaborative because I didn’t want to create just a sneaker — that type of fusion isn’t enough to give people in a different environment the full picture of what I’m doing. It’s hard to translate the information of your essence into one piece, so I asked to create a whole silhouette.”

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9. The silhouette is the same one Boris has skated in since the ’90s: “We made protections on the ass because when you sit a lot on your skateboard the grip tape can tear the stitches from your pants. We did the same on the hoodie, the protections are very primitive and wrapped around, like how you would wrap a wound on your finger.”

Saberi adds a disclaimer: “It’s important to say that we didn’t do skateboarding gear, but that we were inspired. Skateboarding was always about showing off your own essential style; mine was most of the time not about skate brands, but the manifest of a new silhouette.”

10. Boris skates goofy.

11. He still skates to this day — now with his son — and even in his new Instapumps: “I wear them every day. I’m not a person who wears something just to do something, I’m a four-by-four. So if I dress, then it has to work for everything: for climbing, running, walking, going to dinner, going to a factory to dye garments — I don’t use something for one simple occasion.”