The Bode Rec. and Nike Collaboration Celebrates American Sportswear With Plenty of Flair

The charms tie in to the larger narratives around which Adams Bode Aujla built the collection which also includes clothes. “We were looking at American Athletic wear and recreational wear beginning around 1756, which is when one of the first-ever recorded boat races took place in the New York Harbor between the Manhattan—that’s the name of the ship—which was a sailing ship, and the Cape Cod Whaler,” she explains. “Obviously they weren’t wearing this kind of clothing, so the silhouette comes from the things that I can remember from childhood and that relationship with sports in my family’s life; my dad played high school football and college football in the 1970s.” As such, the collection is divided into two colorways that match each “team”; the Cape Cod colorway is a bright blue, and the Manhattan colorway is an almost-black brown. There are weatherproof track jackets and track pants in tonal satin stripes—which can be worn with a matching dickie for a sort of sporty three piece suit (“I thought it could be what an athlete wears to accept an award or something”)—along with long sleeve mesh jerseys and woolen “Lacing Knits,” and very 1970’s running short-shorts; all essential pieces of an athletic wardrobe, which although fully-made for action, also include signature Bode touches. The side stripes on the track pants are made from velvet ribbon, and feature a hand-beaded laurel leaf motif taken from a 1922 French flapper dress—the first year female athletes were allowed to compete in the Olympics—with extra-long seam allowance so you can take the hem down if needed. “Ok so you may not actually go running in these,” Adams Bode Aujla adds, laughing. But you can certainly go running in the Thermal Pant. “It’s one of my favorite things that we learned when we visited the archives,” she explains. “Bill Bowerman was coaching students at Oregon and they would wear long johns to run around the neighborhood and the neighbors were complaining that guys were running in their underwear, so Bowerman dyed them green; which I thought was so funny.”

Perhaps the most Bode item in the collection are the Scrimmage Pinnys, which are made from machine-washable mesh and embellished with an appliqué of a runner and decorated with a variety of pins and buttons. They will likely elicit an immediate emotional response to those who wore them while playing sports in middle school or high school; automatically embedding it with a memory and personal history; which is what Adams Bode Aujla has been after all along.

The collection will be available on April 18 on Bode.com and on May 1 on SNKRS and select Nike retailers.