Li-Ning and Hajime Sorayama bring sportswear to contemporary art

This November, Chinese sportswear brand Li-Ning and Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama launched the second drop of their collaboration entitled Let sports light your passion. The co-branded collection is an extension of Drop1 released earlier this year, combining futuristic and oriental features through the creative integration of high-performance sportswear and modern art, exploring the link between design and the energy of sport.

On November 6th the brand inaugurated 1990, the new high-end line based on the brand's heritage and Chinese philosophical principles, celebrating the launch in the flagship store in Beijing that hosted the first FW collection of the new brand. The brand has shown its willingness to expand in the direction of luxury sportswear and that with Hajime Sorayama is only the first of a series of collaborations that will move in this direction. Hajime Sorayama is a Japanese illustrator, his creations are known for erotic depictions of biomechanical and feminized robots as well as his design artwork depicting unusual robotic pets, a kind of bionic dinosaurs. Sorayama's designs are a blend of art, illustration and industrial design, combining suerrealism and futurism. In the fashion field, he has already collaborated with Uniqlo for the Jurassic World collection in 2020, in a capsule of sweatshirts and t-shirts depicting his works, and with Dior in 2019 for the pre-fall 2019 collection. attention during the fashion show was the unexpected collaboration between Hajime Sorayama and Kim Jones, a cross between the stylistic codes of the maison and oriental culture, characterized by graphics that combine cherry blossoms with robotic figures.

In this collection, available exclusively in Japan and China starting November 2021, the torch, of which the athlete and founder of the Li-Nang brand was the bearer both at the 2008 Olympics and the Asian Games in 1990, was the main inspiration for Hajime Sorayama, positioned as a key graphic on sweatshirts and sweaters. Let sports light your passion Drop 2 also includes short-sleeved shirts, skateboards, a basketball and Li-Ning's famous high-performance running sneaker model Shadow in an exclusive all-white version. The overall collection, in white, black and silver shades reflects on the futuristic identity in a streetwear and functional key. With his latest project, Li-Ning further distinguishes himself within the world sportswear panorama, always finding innovative imaginaries and aesthetics.