Behind Her Label

African Heritage Meets Streetwear

Last March, Foot Locker launched ‘Behind Her Label’, an international platform designed to reduce the gender gap in streetwear culture by elevating and providing resources to emerging female designers. Each collaborator will create an exclusive product collection which will be sold in one chosen Foot Locker store in their home city, and on the footlocker.eu website. The campaign is part of Foot Locker’s wider online platform, ‘Powered By You’, which aims to create a more progressive future for all, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, size or ability.

The initiative’s first collaborator is Aida Kiraya, founder and sneaker customizer at Afro Kickz.

“I think it’s really important to highlight women in streetwear, not a lot of people think that women are actually behind the designs they see - when I first started customising, a lot of people would always assume that I was a guy”. – Aida

Founded in 2018, Afro Kickz was born out of Aida’s determination to create sneakers inspired by traditional African imagery and modern black culture. Growing up in North London, Aida and her peers would shy away from embracing their African heritage. As an adult, she wanted to create something that would change that narrative for future generations. Afro Kickz merges Aida’s adolescent love for sneakers with the love she now has for her culture.

“My work is inspired by African and black culture; whether that’s other artists or inspirational figures or different parts of African culture. I really think it’s important to celebrate African culture because growing up I didn’t have that many people to look up to”. – Aida

Thanks to Foot Locker’s ‘Behind Her Label’, you can now shop Aida’s work in an exclusive capsule collection with 4 different designs. Only 75 pairs were produced, 25 of which will be retailed in London. The remaining 50 pairs are up for grabs here at footlocker.eu! Seize your chance before it’s too late…