Ten years of Aimé Leon Dore: this is the story behind the brand
March 2, 2024 9:57 AM
Aimé Leon Dore. The popular brand will be exactly ten years old in March 2024. A decade full of changes in the aesthetic of today's fashion and sneaker world. The American label's distinctive aesthetic has led to major collaborations with brands like PUMA and New Balance.
Today, we want to tell you the whole story behind Aimé Leon Dore.
'Aimé'
Teddy Santis is the brains behind Aimé Leon Dore and has incorporated aspects of his childhood into the fashion and lifestyle brand's designs. Santis was born and raised in New York, Queens. The big city that is New York has an enormous amount to offer. Santis was therefore interested in hip-hop culture and all the subcultures found in the city. The diversity between cultures is especially evident in the style from which Santis' passion for fashion arose.
Image New Balance
After spending time working in the fashion industry and getting in touch with important people, Santis decided to experiment with fashion. In 2012, a red jumper called 'Aimé' was the result of his experimentation.
Santis showed it to Ronnie Fieg, founder of the clothing brand KITH, without any expectations or intentions of launching the jersey. Fieg posted it on his Instagram and received rave reviews. Several people wanted to know where they could buy the jumper. This was reason enough for Santis to take his idea and dream seriously and pursue it.
Image New Balance
Santis couldn't claim the rights to the name 'Aimé', the French word for love, forcing him to reconsider his choice. Thanks to suggestions from his wife Denise, the final name 'Aimé Leon Dore' emerged. 'Leon', meaning lion, came from his father's Greek nickname. The name 'Dore' comes from Teddy's official name Theodore.
"I believe we are storytellers more than anything and the product comes second to that."
Teddy Santis, END.
The brand's designs have influences from hip-hop, basketball, Santis' Greek and New York roots. The launch of his brand took place in 2014. Santis had outsourced his budget to produce the garments, but soon found that the quality was far below par. He decided that if he wanted to deliver good quality, he needed to have production done in NYC. The first collection was inspired by New York fashion in the 1990s and became a great success.
Distinctive aesthetics
With his role as founder and creative director, Santis has since taken the brand to a high level and Aimé Leon Dore is appreciated worldwide. The vision "with a strong focus on simple yet powerful design, we are driven to create timeless work by reflecting an aesthetic that is uniquely ours" is at the heart of ALD. This leads to the minimalist style and timeless designs, with a strong emphasis on quality and attention to detail in every Aimé Leon Dore collection. This aesthetic is reflected not only in the garments but also in the physical shops and online marketing.
Images Ståle Eriksen / London store
Aimé Leon Dore x PUMA
PUMA was Aimé Leon Dore's first collaboration partner. In 2015, the classic States silhouette received a makeover and appeared in beige, red, grey, and blue. Two-tone colorways were spread across three colorways. The biggest difference to the sneaker was the use of materials, with a heavy mesh used.
Image Aimé Leon Dore
Aimé Leon Dore x New Balance
The long-standing collaboration between Aimé Leon Dore and New Balance goes back to 2019, also ALD's second collaboration since the one with PUMA in 2015. The first collaboration released by the duo was two colorways of the New Balance 997. Not long after, they also released a 990v2 and a 990v5. New Balance took a risk with this, as the 990v5 was a new version. It paid off: the 990v5 became a bestseller - thanks in part to Aimé Leon Dore.
Image Aimé Leon Dore
New Balance 550
Shortly after releasing a new colorway of the 827 silhouette, New Balance came up with surely the most famous model of all.
Basketball has always been part of Aimé Leon Dore's identity. In 2020, the New York label pulled out a rarely seen basketball shoe from 1989 from the New Balance archives in its 'International Friendship Through Basketball' collection. It turned out to be the New Balance 550 model from an old Japanese New Balance catalog.
After more than eight samples, New Balance and Aimé Leon Dore had finally perfected the shape of the shoe. In September 2020, the first Aimé Leon Dore x New Balance 550 four-pack was released. With a base of off-white and accent colors of red, green, grey, and navy blue, they achieved the perfect combination of the two brands. The sneaker was a hit and was soon included in New Balance's standard collection.
Images Aimé Leon Dore
Made in USA
Due to the great success of the New Balance 550, New Balance decided in 2021 to appoint Teddy Santis as creative director of the New Balance 'Made In USA' line. In June 2022, the first collection was then released under his stewardship, again to rave reviews.
Three sneakers made up the collection: the New Balance MADE in USA 990v1, 990v2, and the 990v3. Meanwhile, Teddy Santis has been responsible for several collections. You can read more about the latest collection of the New Balance 'Made In USA' line in our sneaker news.
Image New Balance
SS24 collection
Apart from these two collaborations with PUMA and New Balance, Aimé Leon Dore has been influential elsewhere.
Suicoke, New Era, Clarks, and even Porsche can be added to the list of their collaborations. In ten years, Teddy Santis has managed to build a hugely popular brand, partly because of his unique approach. Everything he does has the recognizable ALD stamp on it.
Aimé Leon Dore's latest SS24 collection was released on 24 February 2024. The collection effortlessly embraces the aesthetic of Santis' label. A label that celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2024. Whether Santis will celebrate this anniversary in a big way remains to be seen this year.
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