Li-Ning Collaborations

The program

Beginning in 2018, Curative worked with Li-Ning, the Chinese sportswear company, to build something it did not yet have: a collaboration program. Li-Ning wanted to move the label toward fashion and street culture but had no framework for the artist and brand partnerships that would get it there. Curative helped its team stand that program up from the ground, developing the projects and the structure around them over several years.

The work spanned apparel, footwear, accessories, and physical activations, released largely through Li-Ning stores in the Greater China region.

The collaborations

OG Slick designed a collection of apparel, accessories, and sneakers and reworked his ‘Slick Hands’ into Li-Ning’s ‘LN Hands,’ realized as a large sculpture and a hand-painted mural. The collaboration launched at a pop-up at Beijing Sanlitun, where Slick met press and fans.

The artist roster Curative assembled did not stop with Slick. David Flores and Persue joined the program as well, each bringing a distinct visual language to Li-Ning’s move into street culture.

PLEASURES, the Los Angeles label known for its ’90s grunge, metal, and punk references, designed a capsule around Li-Ning’s Wave Pro sneaker with ready-to-wear and accessories. MARKET, formerly Chinatown Market, produced an outdoor-themed apparel and footwear collection whose standout piece was a 2-in-1 water shoe clog, sold exclusively at Li-Ning stores across Greater China.

What Curative did

This was as much program-building as curation. Because Li-Ning had no collaboration program in place, Curative helped stand one up with Li-Ning’s team, then sourced and curated the collaborators to fill it, selecting the artists and partnering the labels with the brand across several years. The design work belonged to each collaborator; the program that carried it was built together.