How the cult label is redefining female community on and off the pitch.

Dressed head-to-toe in Martine Rose’s genderless tailoring collection for <a href="https://www.goat.com/brand/nike">Nike</a>, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team made their way to their first match in the FIFA Women’s World Cup last week. Decked out in player suit jackets and the new <a href="https://www.goat.com/sneakers/silhouette/shox-mule-mr4">Martine Rose x Nike Shox MR 4</a>, the collaborative gear marks a sea change in fashion’s ongoing tie up with sportswear.
Launching the brand with art director, stylist and confidante Tamara Rothstein in 2007, over the past 16 years <a href="https://www.goat.com/brand/martine-rose">Rose</a> has flipped culture on its head through mash-ups of classic menswear, music and sportswear. For Rose and her close-knit team, clothing has clear connotations to culture, and style’s inherent ties to class and subculture; ultimately, fashion provides a medium for not only social commentary, but community. Honing in on different cultural standpoints, whether it be memories close to home like rave patches on camo trousers and jackets inspired by Rose’s upbringing in South London, or points of influence like Jamaican musician and producer Lee “Scratch” Perry, it’s the 1971 women’s football team the Lost Lionesses which has been a focal point since 2021.

When Shauni Douglas, previously head designer at <a href="https://www.goat.com/brand/martine-rose">Martine Rose</a> and current consultant to the brand, brought the Lionesses to the drawing board, Rose and her team had never heard of them before—like most of society—having been written out of the sports history books. <a href="https://www.goat.com/editorial/football-fashion-trend">Football </a><a href="https://www.goat.com/editorial/football-fashion-trend">culture</a> is part of Britain’s national identity; it’s the people’s sport and has traditionally been a preoccupation of the working class, whether kids playing on the local common, fans on the terraces or watching matches in the local pub. But it’s often the men, from male players through to the sport’s legacy in subcultural style with the Casuals of the ’70s and ’80s, who get the bulk of the credit. So, the Martine Rose team decided to look at football culture in a new light: highlighting the hurdles women have to face.
Reigniting their collaboration with <a href="https://www.goat.com/sneakers/brand/nike">Nike</a> in line with the Euros 2020, the Martine Rose team designed a supporter’s jersey in tribute to the Lost Lionesses, England’s first women’s football team, who were never recognized by the official football federation. The following year, Martine Rose released its first take on the Nike Shox. A backless mule design, Rose’s take on the silhouette put women front and center with a campaign celebrating nine unsung heroes from European football, including Hope Powell CBE, England’s first Black football team manager.&nbsp;
Launched to coincide with the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 football tournament, Rose’s <a href="https://www.goat.com/collections/martine-rose-nike">collaboration</a> with Nike was predicated on taking a sportswear design, which also has roots in underground British rave culture’s go-to dancing uniform, and turning it on its head to rewrite the rules of ownership. The design team made the Shox “smart,” adding a heel, and, of course, squaring off the toe and making the low-top design backless—a nod to Rose’s signature backless loafer. First debuted on the brand’s SS23 runway, the slip-on features a synthetic leather upper, traditional lace closure and a breathable mesh tongue, with elongated Shox columns, and was initially released in <a href="https://www.goat.com/sneakers/martine-rose-x-shox-mule-mr4-black-comet-red-dq2401-001">'Black Comet Red'</a> and <a href="https://www.goat.com/sneakers/martine-rose-x-shox-mule-mr4-white-metallic-silver-dq2401-100">'White Metallic Silver.'</a>

The fashion-forward <a href="https://www.goat.com/sneakers/cleats">football boot</a> has since permeated street culture and celebrity fashion, with the second Nike Shox MR4 in <a href="https://www.goat.com/sneakers/martine-rose-x-wmns-shox-mule-mr4-scuba-blue-dq2401-400">'Scuba Blue'</a> and <a href="https://www.goat.com/sneakers/martine-rose-x-wmns-shox-mule-mr4-safety-orange-dq2401-800">'Safety Orange'</a> seen on the likes of Hailey Bieber and Kendrick Lamar. Reflecting the changing value and nature of sportswear and trainers as both high-fashion status symbol and everyday wardrobe essential, the initiation of trainers into the closets of everyone from stylish moms to TikTok kids is just one indicator of how fashion’s traditional role as an indicator of class has become blurred.
The trainer as fashion iconography is increasingly broad in definition, and <a href="https://www.goat.com/brand/martine-rose">Rose</a> speaks to the global sneaker community who are well accustomed and have come to expect a designer to spin and subvert sportswear’s DNA. Heavyweight brands such as <a href="https://www.goat.com/brand/nike">Nike</a> are willing to become&nbsp;increasingly more chameleon-like with hero designs such as the Shox, having previously handed the reins over to Rose with the <a href="https://www.goat.com/sneakers/martine-rose-x-air-monarch-iv-triple-black-at3147-001">2019 Nike Air Monarch IV</a>—a collaboration again focused on a key design thread for Rose: the distortion of iconic silhouettes, with Rose shrinking a size 18 shoe onto a size 9 sole, resulting in a bulbous, instant-classic design.
Redefining recognizable wardrobe staples has always been a staple for Rose, but a focus on female athletes has enabled the team to redefine how culture perceives women’s sport on a much larger scale. “This journey into women’s football has been epic. It has been vast. I have heard so many stories about so many different women,” Rose explains. “Our campaign last season—Hope Powell was in it; women who safeguard women in football. Women who play, who are refugees. I have met so many women, such as Leah Williamson—lots of athletes, both professional and non-professional—people who just play for the love of it. Football has been a safety net for them, it has united them in times of immense difficulty. When I was thinking about the woman, there wasn’t one. There was such a range of women that have been involved in the process and that I have met that inspired me hugely, in lots of different ways. They blew me away.”

From the recent suiting collection with Nike to the Shox, women are front and center on the Martine Rose pitch. The latest iterations of the <a href="https://www.goat.com/sneakers/silhouette/shox-mule-mr4">Shox MR4</a>, unveiled in February and June, include a paint-splattered edition, and blue/purple and orange/neon yellow gradient designs, drawing inspiration from the famously vibrant goalkeeper jerseys of the 1990s. Even though women have inspired and created the MR4, it’s for everyone; Rose asserts that her designs are intended to make whoever wears them feel “empowered, strong, and sexy. It is what I hope anyone feels when they wear anything that I make, just to feel good.”&nbsp;

The accompanying <a href="https://www.goat.com/collections/martine-rose-nike">Martine Rose x Nike</a> campaign, titled ‘Martine Rose Sports TV,’ highlights women both on and off pitch. “The Martine woman has a mystery about her, a little guarded and tough, always an off-center sexiness. I think she’s also quite fun and has a sense of humor,” explains casting director Isabel Bush. The lo-fi, gameshow aesthetic of the campaign, consisting of photography by Roxy Lee and Josie Hall and a film by Rosie Marks, channels that same sense of humor and irony reflected in the clothes, where Meera Slight heads up print design. This sensibility is what the Martine Rose customers come back for again and again.&nbsp;
“Sports broadcasting is often serious and straight to the point, so we wanted to explore that through a Martine Rose lens,” says Marks. “We looked to create a hybrid of traditional broadcasting, such as talk shows, talent and game shows, news bulletins, ad breaks and channel flicking, alongside more surreal moments of sports TV. I don’t know if it resembles anything like a sports broadcast now, but that is a good thing.”

Martine Rose x Wmns Shox Mule MR4 'Black Comet Red'

Martine Rose x Wmns Shox Mule MR4 'Safety Orange'

Casting for ‘MRSTV’ upped the ante. Fronted by women across popular culture and sports, it includes TV personality and psychologist Ruby Wax, Chicken Shop Date host Amelia Dilmodenberg, former footballer Rachel Yankey and Jean Elliot of the Lost Lionesses. The casting choices reflect a rejection of labels says Bush. “In mainstream culture, women are still being viewed through a lens of ‘women footballers’ or ‘women comedians’ and what felt really powerful in the casting is that we brought in so many layers of what it means to be human without that label attached. The success of women is often correlated to sex appeal, and while that’s empowering if you are able to use it to your advantage, there’s something really special about seeing successful women for everything they are.”
Behind the scenes of the campaign there was an all-female team, from Nike’s collaboration and marketing lead Madison Hahn through to Rose, Rothstein, Marks and Bush, set designer Polly Philip, makeup artist Marina Belfon Rose, hair stylist Kota Suizu, manicurist Cherrie Snow, executive producer Claire Burman and the CEBE Studio team Sophie Baillavoine, Claudine Dignadice, Freya Reeves, Kayla King and Maya Lessof. When talking about a project that celebrates unsung heroes, it would be trivial not to name all these women who made it happen. Rose’s PR, Agency Eleven, have been there from the start, with founder and director Laura Dooley alongside Liz Chuck working to curate and communicate each MR experience.
In fashion, which is dominated by male, usually white, CEOs and design-leads, <a href="https://www.goat.com/brand/martine-rose">Martine Rose</a> cuts through a lot of the noise. “The unconscious perspective is already ours, it’s easier to feel what’s right for the project and what things we see around us that still need work,” Bush says. “Martine and Tamara are also an inspiring example of how multifaceted women are through the way they navigate creativity, work, motherhood and all of the other things women can experience. They are constantly questioning everything and it really inspires me to regularly reevaluate my own experience and world view.” Marks echoes this sentiment, emphasizing that within the brand, there’s space for everyone’s voice to be heard.&nbsp;
Ultimately, <a href="https://www.goat.com/collections/martine-rose-nike">Martine Rose’s Nike collaboration</a> is not just about the beauty of the game—it’s about the beauty and unstoppable power of women.

Martine Rose x Wmns Shox Mule MR4 'Scuba Blue'

Martine Rose x Wmns Shox Mule MR4 'White Metallic Silver'

Meet the Women Behind Martine Rose’s Otherworldly Nike Shox

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Meet the Women Behind Martine Rose’s Otherworldly Nike Shox