Keds Teams Up with Whitney Museum for Customized Sneakers Window at Bloomingdale's

By Michelle Zimmerman, New York Correspondent

Special Limited Edition Keds by Jenny Holzer for the Whitney Museum at Bloomingdale's.

As a special series for our readers, The Arriviste welcomes on board our new New York correspondent, Michelle Zimmerman of the jewelry line, Delicate Raymond, for the summer.

This is her take on a special but fun Keds exhibit at Bloomingdale's 59th Street & Lexington Avenue store, for the Whitney Museum during the summer.

To celebrate Keds' sponsorship of the Whitney's Live presented by Keds Concert Series starting with Christian Marclay: Festival, Keds is launching two limited edition projects: KedsWhitney Collection with conceptual artist Jenny Holzer, and painters Laura Owens and Sarah Crowner -- all artists who have exhibited their work during the famed Whitney Biennial and an interactive design window at Bloomingdale's to customize your sneakers.

The interactive customized design window to decorate your blank Keds to your taste.

“We are delighted to be collaborating with Keds this summer,” said Adam D. Weinberg, the Whitney Museum’s Alice Pratt Brown Director. “Keds’ commitment to today’s brightest contemporary artists and musicians is extraordinary, and we are extremely pleased that Keds has taken such a prominent role in supporting innovative projects like Christian Marclay: Festival.”

The KedsWhitney Collection by Jenny Holzer, who uses words in a range of media such as LED signs, stone benches, and T-shirts, will launch exclusively at select Bloomingdale’s stores nationwide, as well as on bloomingdales.com and keds.com starting in July 2010 along with the Keds Premium Line.

All Keds’ profits from Jenny Holzer’s line will benefit the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The collections by Laura Owens and Sarah Crowner will follow in September. A portion of the Keds profits from the sales of these shoes will benefit the Whitney Museum of American Art.

"It's great that Keds and the Whitney are friends,” states Jenny Holzer. “I have a renewed respect for shoe designers."

Jenny Holzer’s limited-edition styles will feature a phrase from one of her signature text series, Survival: PROTECT ME FROM WHAT I WANT applied to the Champion®, expected to retail in the range of $70 - $75 per pair.

The window screen in how to personally design your own Keds.

"Bloomingdale's is thrilled with the opportunity to bring this partnership to life through creativity, technology and merchandise," said Jack Hruska, EVP creative services at Bloomingdale's. "Three iconic brands coming together to support the arts is a powerful statement that we are proud to champion."

“We are honored to be partnering with the Whitney Museum of American Art on their summer season, as well as launching the exciting KedsWhitney Collection,” said Kristin Kohler Burrows, President of Keds. “Working with an institution such as the Whitney and artists like Jenny Holzer, Laura Owens and Sarah Crowner is the personification of our new brand proposition and the wide range of creative possibilities Keds offers.”

To mark this triumvirate collaboration between Keds, the Whitney Museum, and Bloomingdale's, -and you want your own artwork on your own sneakers-the storied department store was kind enough to install an interactive design window in a display case holding banks of blank Keds for any passer-by to punch in a couple of patterns to customize their very own sneakers.

Keds is proud call themselves "blank canvas" to express your individuality.

Ked our NY correspondent, Michelle Zimmerman, custom designed.

Michelle Zimmerman had a blast trying out the interactive design window and getting her own personalized pair of Keds.

At this interactive touchscreen-based customization center, where consumers will have the opportunity to design their own Keds sneakers at the window and save their custom designs to finish from their homes.

The interactive Keds design window to customize your "sneaks" will be up and running for, from July 8th to July 21st.

Our NY correspondent loves this pair.

To commemorate both the pairing of Keds' Whitney Summer Sponsorhip and the interactive window, this recent past Thursday, July 8th, a trio of Masters of Fine Arts students did performance art for the press and passer-bys.

Erica Greenwald

MFA artists Jee Young Choi, Natalia Yovane and Erica Greenwald painted artworks and paintings as a "happening" to generate excitement over the launches and collaborations...

Jee painting.

also to reinforce the purpose of the sponsorship and the tradition of the Whitney supporting the arts, past, current, and the future.

Natalia painting as performance art in the display window.

What's more, this is a cute and clever way to introduce emerging artists such as Ms. Yovane, Ms. Greenwald, and Ms. Choi, to the general public. Young ladies to watch out for in the near future.

What a fun way to have our soggy brains soak up some art and culture while getting our own customized Keds.