Fight night

Last Saturday was the ultimate fight night, and not just because David Haye  retained his WBA Heavyweight belt title against Audley Harrison.

In London’s deepest darkest Shoreditch a night of destruction occurred, but all in the name of creation to help celebrate the launch of Nike Sportswear’s Destroyer jacket – confused? So was I.

At the launch of Nike Sportswear’s Destroyer jacket
At the launch of Nike Sportswear’s Destroyer jacket

I entered 1948 – Nike’s pop up store located underneath a  railway arch in London’s Shoreditch –  to the beat of some hardcore Dubstep music reverberating out of the bass speaker.

In the corner, Frith Street Tattoo artists were inking away. In the other, Amsterdam-based creative studio I Have Pop showcased an exact replica of a destroyer jacket in wood – which was burnt with a flame torch and preserved.

Frith St Tattoo
Frith St Tattoo

The walls were branded with graffiti slogans – ‘Don’t wait for the future: create it’ and ‘Because the old must die for the new to be born’. A lightweight bike belonging to cyclist Mark Cavendish (known for punishing his body in order to come home with Olympic medals) – was displayed next to jewellery designer Duffy’s melted down version of it – in the form of a skull.

The Cavendish bike
Mark Cavendish’s bike

Duffy's skull
Duffy’s skull made from the bike

I was starting to get the idea.

The Destroy to Create campaign marks the revival of the original varsity style jacket that Nike has been producing for the past 30 years. The event fused a night of fashion, music, sport, design and art, in which something could be destroyed in order for something to be created.

The evening climaxed with a  female boxing match between Kina Malpartida and Lissett Medel, who fought to the sound of hard core punk bank The Gallows. It was all starting to get a little surreal – the mosh pit was going crazy with men flinging themselves against each other, breaking into a full on fight then happily hugging each other afterwards remarking ‘that was a good mosh’. I guess it really did encompass the theme – I’m just glad I survived it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLrb0MTErqs

Destroy to Create launches on 18 November – look out on the DW blog for the film release. For more information check out #wearethedetroyers on Twitter.

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