This week, the artist Tom Sachs unveils his latest sculpture: the Nike Mars Yard Overshoe. It is an artefact that conveys the corporeal values of Sach’s sport of making and musing. ‘I take the sock-liners out of my sneakers so that the ground is harder below so I can think clearer. I like to feel my skeletal structure because it’s within all of us’. Sneaker-heads rushing to get a pair at Dover Street Market in London are dedicated to keeping their kicks clean.
They live with rows upon rows of box-fresh styles protected from the patina of life, yet Sachs purposefully creates things that will show wear quickly. ‘I gave a pair to my friend who has them on a shelf and I said, “WTF you have to wear these!” It’s a missed opportunity and worse is the idea that when you put something like that on a pedestal, you deny your own mortality. You’re saying “I will live forever and these shoes will live forever,” but ultimately, when you die, it’s all gonna end up in a thrift shop or eBay. These things are meant to be used. Wear it! Wear it to death!’
