story

Anything that we do, that's also like a hip-hop state of mind, it's a hustle.

Hi, it's AZ and we are here in Amsterdam for Patta's 20th year. We're about to dive into some of the history, speak to some of the family and unpack the Air Max 1 Chlorophyll's return.

When we started, our background was already with community and hip-hop. We have taste. We already knew what fly was. For us, it was natural to just buy stuff and put it in our store.

With Nike, we have a good relationship. It's a connection. Each collaboration has its own vision. With the success of The Wave, the Barçelona, we did Publicity Publicity, the running project that we just recently did. Travelling the world, connecting.

The last twenty years, most memorable? The Lagos project, to actually open up a store over there. Full circle for us children of the diaspora. You're coming back to your roots basically and second, nobody's done it.

Patta is a friends-and-family affair. It started that way twenty years ago and that is how it always will be. We spoke to some of the community members about the journey. Each one, teach one baby.

They were the first people to give me my real shot at being a rapper. They kicked down the corporate door for a newer generation to show that it's possible to do stuff. They always bring you into their network; they always want to support you.

For me as a DJ travelling to other continents, if I had on like a Patta-anything, people would immediately know that "Oh, this is from Amsterdam". Edson saw something in me. Giving me all the knowledge he has and he's like, "Yeah that's what we need, people like you".

Diving deeper into the Air Max 1 Chlorophyll, we uncover the roots of the initial design with Patta's former footwear designer Masta Lee.

Dopeness. That was our whole idea behind the Chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is coming back. It has green in it, mean Patta green. The Patta green, which was a signature color of the logos at the time.  

And paying homage to the original colorways of the Air Max 1s released in 1987. The most important thing is to create something that we feel is really dope and that we're confident about to share with the world.

Getting the opportunity to work on that actual shoe, that's kind of crazy. This was the one for us to bring back. The future, no one knows what it holds. We'll see it as it comes, you know, like, for us a lot of stuff is very organic.

So many things that I still want to do, but twenty years, I was like, all right let's just be stable and just love the things that we … that we got and what we're doing.

Patta 20-Year Anniversary 'Air Max 1 Chlorophyll'