June is rolling in tomorrow and that can only mean two things, Summer is right around the corner and Pride Month is officially starting. To celebrate, Nike’s 2019 BETRUE collection houses Gilbert Baker’s original Rainbow Flag.
Many people do not know who Gilbert Baker is or the significant role he has played in the LGBTQIA+ community. To start, he was a political activist and designer that wanted to help the community out by uniting them as one. He went on to hand sew and hand dye two flags that consisted of eight different colors. Those colors were pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, blue and violet and he debuted it in San Francisco in support of the community in 1978. Not knowing how huge it would play out, the community loved it and demanded more.
Organizers of San Francisco’s annual Pride Parade decided since the community loved it so much, it would be a great look if they lined their parade route with the brightly colored flags. They reached out to Baker and put in an order for 400 handmade flags. He quickly went to work but found out that the flag company that was supplying him materials did not have enough pink thread so he decided to take out pink from the flag’s colors. Evening it out, he then eliminated turquoise to make an even six colors. Forty years in the future, the six colored flags still remains and unites all of the LGBTQIA+ community.
As Nike has been celebrating Pride Month for several years now, it only made sense for them to dedicate this year’s Pride Month collection to none other than the person that started the symbolic colors, Gilbert Baker. They will be releasing four different BETRUE versions of their most popular sneaker silhouettes, clothing and accessories that all shed light on Baker’s hand made techniques and honors his original eight colored flag. Overall, the collection looks great and it holds a lot of meaning to many people. Nike did a very good job with the back story and relating it back to where it all started.
NIKE 2019 BETRUE COLLECTION RELEASE INFORMATION
The Nike 2019 BETRUE collection will release globally on June 1st, 2019 and in North America at select retailers and Nike.com on June 8th, 2019. Whether you want to show your pride, support a loved one, or show your support for the community, the collection has you covered. Grab a look below at what the collection holds and stay tuned to JustFreshKicks for other Nike news.
Written By Irven Sykes
