From outside the front entrance, Nike's space in Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles looks like a generic office building in a generic office park—the kind of place where you might go to meet your accountant or dentist. Inside, the actual office space looks like a minimalist tech start-up where a few dozen employees work. It's not until you get to the back yard that it feels truly Nike. There's a small outdoor track, a workout facility with a perfectly manicured lawn, and an outdoor seating area flanked by plants that looks like the balcony of an upscale hotel. (The space currently serves as a world-class training facility as well as a place where Nike-sponsored athletes and entertainers can customize product, though it's currently in the process of converting to something more consumer-facing.)
I'm here to talk to Errolson Hugh, whose brand Acronym has been leading the way on fashionable techwear since 1994. (Hugh also is the designer of Nike's ACG line.) Since 2015, Acronym has collaborated with Nike on several of its classic silhouettes, like the Air Force 1 and Air Presto. Acronym's latest Nike collaboration is a bold, graphic take on the laceless VaporMax 2 Moc, but Hugh isn't the only one here promoting the kicks—he's joined by John Mayer, the musician and covetable menswear expert who also happens to be one of Acronym's biggest clients. (Later, at a Nike-sponsored event, he wears an Acronym varsity jacket from 2009, saying he likes wearing pieces that "were hard to get long ago.")
Mayer isn't just here for support—this week he went from just a Nike and Acronym fan to taking part in the marketing for the sneakers, starring in both a lookbook and short film. But this isn't the first time he's has dipped his toe into Nike waters: last year, Mayer sold his own custom Air Max 90 sneakers at Flight Club—a NIKEiD job he called the "Spirit Level 90s"— and in the process circumvented the idea of an official collaboration at all. But in 2018, Mayer explains, he's looking to legitimize his place in the menswear world: he cares deeply about fashion, and doesn't want his interest to be a quiet footnote in the way people understand him. Which is where Errolson Hugh, and his impossible-to-question bona fides in the field, comes in. Today, Hugh's jackets are the kinds of pieces you can find on Grailed going for even more than they retail for (which is a lot). The two have been friends for over a decade, and now they're turning that friendship into something a little more official.
So while on the surface seeing these two in a Nike commercial seems like a surprise, for those who've been paying attention, it's the culmination of something that's been a long time coming. We spoke to Mayer and Hugh about their new Nike collaboration, design philosophy, and much more.
GQ: What was your first thought when you saw the VaporMax?
Errolson Hugh: I just thought it was totally futuristic. I loved that nothing about it referenced the past. It's a pure performance idea. It's just the Air bubble. And the Flyknit is the most state of the art thing you can do.
How did you land on this chevron pattern on the upper?
Hugh: Well, we purposefully decided to go a different route then we had been going with other Nike shoes. The main reason for that is that the [VaporMax Moc] works fine as it is. You can just slip it on. There's no reason to add to it, with like zippers or buckles. For us, if you're just adding things for the look, it's just ornamentation. So we had to find a different way to modify the shoe. When we get a chance to do something, we try to push it as far as we can.
John Mayer: I have a lateral question. When you see [fan-made] mock ups of things you might do that have zippers all over them, does that push you to not do them? Are you influenced by what people think they're going to get, once you see it?
Hugh: Probably, yeah. For us, these shoes are kind of almost three years old. We did these a long time ago. So just naturally we're also in a different place than the market at the time. What happened with the first shoe we did, the Lunar Force, it kicked off this DIY thing at the consumer level. Kids were cutting their shoes open and adding their own zippers. And some of the ones we saw were amazing. There's no reason for us to do a zipper on the VaporMax because there's probably a Chinese kid in his basement who's going to do one better than we could do.
Mayer: There's a new arc that happens when someone sees something they don't expect. We call it "hate" on the internet because we don't have another word for it. I saw this with the guitar I just put out. But they're not hating on it. They're just reacting to the fact that they don't have a point of reference for it.
Hugh: That's a very constructive way of looking it.
Mayer: I think it's just people's way of touching it when they can't touch it. People are just ripping into it. It's a form of interaction. But it's more puzzlement. Hating on a shoe that you just saw 30 seconds ago is proof of your analysis of it. It's almost obvious that if you see something brand new, you're not going to understand it. But you see the process in real time. At first they go "yuck!" And then four days later they say, "It's growing on me." Four days after that, they see it on Errolson and go, "I have to have it."
GQ: What's better, in your opinion? Taking the route you just described to loving something, or to love it right away?
Mayer: If someone says, "Wow, that's amazing" right away, then I don't think you've done anything to move their point of reference forward. I told Errolson it took me four minutes with these shoes. It took me four minutes to go from "Yuck!" to loving them. And that's what I like. I like that his vision exists outside of my vision. That's why we look up to people who exist outside of our realm.
What did Errolson say when you told him that?
Mayer: He said, "Only four minutes?" [Laughs]
Hugh: I'll have to turn it up more next time.
John, do you remember the first Acronym piece you bought? What initially drew you to the brand?
Mayer: It must have been at [now-closed Berlin store] The Glade. It must have been 2005. I think I was just swinging around the internet and discovered The Glade. I think the first jacket I bought was a cashmere GT. It was unbelievable. I thought it was so overtly technical and it was special beyond clothing. I spend most of my time in Los Angeles, and I have Gore-Tex jackets. I'm hoping for rain just so I don't look crazy. I loved that you didn't wear it like a jacket—you're using it. Then later I met Errolson in [London], and became part of a super secret sub-net group. We got to see what the new seasons were going to be.
Hugh: Back then, it was only, like, 50 people.
Mayer: I'd get this super clandestine link with a password and we'd get to see the new pieces. It was always this great Christmas morning vibe where I'd be like, "Okay, let's see what he has in mind." I looked forward to being challenged, and I still do.
At the time, you were basically buying one of everything, right? It was Christmas morning, but one where you had, like, 50 new jackets.
Mayer: That is correct. I don't know why I do it. But the story is not over. When I was first buying the stuff people thought I was a crazy hoarder. And now people are starting to understand that there's a re-sale market, but also they want to know more. Everything before, like, 2011 is not cataloged on Instagram. There are Acronym pieces that no one knows exist. No one knows about the Acronym inflatable vest. People don't know about the varsity jacket. There's a leather GT blazer. It's insane.
[Errolson laughs]
Are you laughing at the fact that you made a leather blazer?
Hugh: No, I'm laughing at the fact that John has all of these pieces.
Who do you think has more Acronym in their closet between the two of you?
Mayer: Oh, you're just going for the soundbite. You're just going for the pullquote. [Laughs.] There's no way he can have more than me. I'm the consumer. He sends them out to people. I'm like the crazy guy who hangs out at the store and helps customers. Well, he doesn't really work here, but we like having him around.
Hugh: John was wearing Acronym back when if you saw someone wearing Acronym you would walk up to someone and be, like, "Do you know Errolson?" That's how long ago it was. Only our friends who we had physically met actually had Acronym.
Mayer: If you saw someone else who was wearing Acronym, you'd freak out. Robin Williams, rest his soul, would be wearing Acronym and Bape and you'd be like, "Oh my god!" Now it's not that radical to see an asymmetrical black Gore-Tex jacket, but back then Errolson was almost shrouded in this lore. Someone once told me that Errolson was walking around Berlin with a samurai sword.
Were you?
Hugh: No...definitely wasn't me. It was another guy...
Mayer: Whether he was or not, that's why I trust him to confuse me with new designs. So when I post a picture of the VaporMaxes, I expect there to be people going "yuck." That's how you know you're vibrating on the edge.
It's almost better to make people choose sides.
Mayer: That's right. I like hanging in the polarizing world...He made red turtlenecks once. [Laughs.] Bright red. Just wanted to say that.
How did you land on this Western, almost Quentin Tarantino vibe for the short film?
Hugh: It kind of started with me getting sunburned in Toyko. My girlfriend had a shoot with this kind of trashy lingerie brand in Toyko, and she took the cowboy hat from the set, and it was the only hat that fit my big ass head. But everywhere I went, people asked me about the hat. So Johanna [from Nike] saw me, and then they came to me with this idea. And around that same time, [John] you had been talking [to Nike], too.
Mayer: Yeah, I sort of looked at 2018 as the year when I wanted this to stop being a footnote. So I reached out to Fraser [Cooke, Nike's global product director], and he said "Well, actually we have something for you." A couple days later I got the deck and went, Man, got it. Ok. It was perfect time.
Did you enjoy the experience of working on a Nike commercial, just as a fan of the brand?
Mayer: I'll tell you why I enjoyed it. My favorite experiences creating with other people are always smooth, efficient, and high-level from beginning to end. I've done recording sessions that were, like, three hours, and they were brilliant. Everyone was so high level. I love everything being so efficient and knocking it out. With this commercial, everyone was on beat. We did it together, and everyone had one hand on the wheel, but it worked. I was finished before I ever sighed—before I ever stopped and looked around to ask "When is this over?" When the idea is great, everything that follows is easy.
Hugh: It was the smoothest production I've ever been a part of. Everything worked, everyone knew what they were doing, everything worked great.
John, were you worried that posing for these photos in the hat and poncho would just add to the pile of "he's also into fashion" footnotes? Or that people wouldn't take it seriously?
Mayer: No, because it's legitimate. When Errolson told me the concept, I knew I had been trying to do that, anyway. The benefit of doing things in a fictional context—like a movie—is you can be more cinematic. It's not only pictures of us, there's also this whole movie space around us. Knowing we were in this fictional thing allowed us to treat the look more like a costume. It gave us the freedom to push a little harder. And it also made me realize, like, I might wear that robe and Gore-Tex combo again.
