Posted by Los Angeles, CA – While Raekwon was raised in the concrete jungle’s boroughs of Brooklyn and Staten Island, he’s now looking to pay homage to the streets of Los Angeles with his latest footwear collaboration alongside Diadora and Foot Locker.
The Chef served up Diadora N9002 Los Angeles sneakers soaked in the classic Lakers purple and gold colors repped across the California capital on Friday (July 15). The N9002 model is exclusively sold at Foot Locker and Champs locations for a retail price of $120.
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The Los Angeles-inspired “Community Linx” is the latest to arrive in the collection that includes previous stops in New York City and Chicago. Raekwon, Foot Locker and Diadora are looking to give back by supplying local musicians with the proper resources to create.
“Foot Locker and Diadora, I feel like, is part of hip-hop culture and sneakers,” Raekwon told Complex in January. “Diadora has definitely been a brand that I grew up on and this whole project that we are doing is to empower our community and just give back to these kids in a way where fashion and culture meet. Basically, just give opportunities to these youngsters and make these youngsters have entrepreneurial dreams and visions of doing the things they love to do.”
Raekwon, Diadora & Foot Locker Launch Community Initiative Inspired By ‘Only Built 4 Cuban Linx’
As part of the Community Linx program, Raekwon hosted a four-week beat-making course with special guest Dave East for 16 emerging artists and producers hailing from NYC. They’ve also taken the workshop to Detroit and Philadelphia with a final stop coming up later this summer in Houston.
The Wu-Tang Clan rhymer already had deep ties to Diadora, whom he collaborated with on the Purple Tapes sneakers in 2015, which were released in celebration of the 20th anniversary of his Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… album.