Balenciaga launches ultra-limited edition Runner Sculpture

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 28, 2022

Fresh from the opening of its London flagship on Bond Street, Kering’s Balenciaga on Monday announced the launch of the Balenciaga Runner Sculpture, an “extremely limited-edition Balenciaga Object”.

And when they say limited edition, they really mean it. This isn't available in the thousands, rather only 20 units have been made and are available in its retail stores in cities including Beijing, Beverly Hills, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Monaco, Paris, Shanghai, and Tokyo stores. They’re also on the brand’s webstores.

The Balenciaga Runner Sculpture recasts the Runner Sneaker — which is “a patchwork of athletic and DIY references introduced in 2021” — as a “life-sized, entirely hand-crafted, inflexible piece in glazed ceramic”.

It's less life imitating art than art imitating life. 

Each unit was carved and modelled by hand, fired, then painted “to effect a worn shoe’s subtle colourings using a traditional Italian maiolica technique by hand, then fired again”.

It shows the worn shoe in all its glory, including layered sport textures, distressed fabric edges, exposed stitching, and intentionally bubbling technical adhesive.

Balenciaga said its Objects are “produced outside of the fashion collections calendar and range from exclusive artworks to practical, everyday items, all of them timeless”.

A life-sized Balenciaga Track Sculpture in silver metal was the first Object in the series, followed by multiple sneaker styles reimagined in laser-etched glass cubes.