DILLON CHEN

From left to right, photography by Jehad Nga, Susan Van Hulst, Neil Leifer, Charles Hamilton, and Kiva Stories From the Field.

UNDER ARMOUR SUMMER LEAGUE 2015
MEN’S APPAREL DESIGN PROJECT

SHADOW BOXING

Tasked to create a category driven capsule collection during my design internship at Under Armour, I fell upon a photo essay illustrating the underdog boxers of Kibera:

"The Olympic Boxing Club is in Kibera, Nairobi’s biggest slum. The boxers have no ring and little equipment — some weights, a skipping rope, tape for binding bruised knuckles. They only acquired a punching bag when a photographer donated some of his earnings from an exhibition to pay for it. 'It’s been torn open a few times,' the photographer [Jehad Nga] says, 'But it keeps going.'" — J.M. Ledgard, Shadow Boxing

Jehad Nga's dynamic, dimly lit photography had stimulated my imagination, and a character, time, and place, was established. The "Boxer" of humble beginnings fights his way from the slums of Nairobi to the biggest stage of the World Boxing Championship. He is outfitted in Under Armour, and this is his story.

Exploring print and pattern, as well as different ways to accentuate the body by finding style lines natural to the male form.

Four looks selected and refined to illustrate how the Boxer trains, fights, and relaxes after a match.

Kibera (Nairobi, Kenya) literally translates to "forest" or "jungle" in Nubian. The Paradise print abstracts palm leaves into fast, energetic strokes, while the Jungle print evokes a dark, lush foliage in geometric form. These delicate prints were applied to disrupt the conditioned masculine look and feel of boxing.