Some collaborations make noise by changing everything. IDEA and Reebok do something more precise: they take one of the quietest sneakers in the archive and let it reveal itself slowly, almost like a book opened under the wrong kind of light.
For their first collaboration, the London-based rare book seller, publisher, and design studio has reworked the Reebok Club C 85, the tennis-born silhouette first introduced in 1985. The result is They Go In The Dark, a version of the classic sneaker that keeps the shoe’s clean, low-cut shape intact while giving it a strange, editorial glow.
The shoe arrives in a restrained white palette, built from a mix of waxy suede, canvas, and premium materials that give the familiar Club C surface a more textured, tactile quality. At first glance, it looks almost understated. Then the details begin to shift: glow-in-the-dark accents, custom tongue labels, heel branding, a terry lining, bespoke footbed, tonal laces, and custom packaging turn the sneaker into something closer to a printed object, collectible edition, or piece of nightlife ephemera.
That is where IDEA feels like the perfect collaborator. Based in Soho, the bookshop has built a global cult following through rare books, fashion archives, photography, print culture, and the kind of taste that travels through references rather than logos. Its world is not loud, but it is deeply recognisable: a place where magazines, out-of-print books, posters, and image histories become objects of desire.
Seen through that lens, the Club C 85 becomes less like a sneaker and more like a physical footnote. A classic court shoe reimagined through the language of shelves, catalogues, late-night browsing, and collectors who know exactly what they are looking at. The glow-in-the-dark detail gives the collaboration its little twist of humour: a clean white sneaker that behaves differently once the lights go down.
The project also arrives with a wider visual world. The collaboration is accompanied by a film, with screenings taking place inside a shoebox cinema installation at Dover Street Market London, extending the release beyond footwear and into the kind of strange printed-and-screened universe that IDEA understands so well.
The IDEA x Reebok Club C 85 pre-launched through Dover Street Market from August 6, with a wider release set for August 13, 2026. Retail pricing is listed at €140 on Reebok EU, £130 through Dover Street Market and IDEA, and $130in US release coverage.
Photos: Reebok