Jens Werner, creative director of the Swedish footwear brand Axel Arigato, has helped push streetwear forward within the fashion industry for over a decade, having held positions at Adidas, where he contributed to the Y-3 collaboration, and as design director of Tory Burch Sport, as well as formerly serving as design director and creative director of J.Lindeberg. In 2023, he assumed the role of creative director at Axel Arigato, guiding the young brand into its next phase as it entered the realm of ready-to-wear. His refined expertise in contemporary fashion, footwear design, as well as product and spatial design, has brought a sense of curiosity to what comes next for the brand. In its Spring/Summer 2026 collection, Green Space, Werner brings these interests together through an exploration of man within the spaces he creates: the tension within our own constructions of urban greenery.
hube: You’ve described ‘the shoe’ as something closer to interior design—an object that connects people and space. What do you mean by that? And how has that philosophy shaped your work at Axel Arigato?
Jens Werner: There are parallels between sneaker and object/interior design, especially its longevity and non-seasonality, which is quite different to how you approach RTW design. A sneaker might never change. A good design is timeless, and can carry lots of different colours and materials that put the design in different lights and target various audiences over time. You create with versions in mind, while in RTW you create for a moment, knowing you need the next idea 6 months later. With shoes, you consider every angle when you design. It’s more 3D, it’s many components, moulds are involved, it feels more industrial than how you approach a garment design. And since we are predominantly a sneaker brand, everything starts with the shoe; an outfit is built around it. It’s like your favourite furniture piece, your first purchase for a new home, and you decorate around that one item. With our new direction, the attitude and shape of our new silhouettes was a key focus: minimal, but expressive, things that visually talk.
h: Your recent collection, Green Space, explores the quiet tension within constructed natural environments. What sparked this idea—and why did it feel like now was the right moment to examine that friction?
JW: We found inspiration in urban and man-made nature when we started designing SS26 back at the end of 2024. I saw more efforts for green spaces in cities, parks being crowded in the summer, people caring more about planting their own herbs, being food independent, learning about old traditions, and being more aware and interested in organic things as a general trend. Another angle to the theme was the ambition to create spaces for our community, and the urge to spend time outdoors. The closest idea to that was an AXEL ARIGATO community garden, a park offering hangout space, playgrounds, skateparks and festivals. The friction of nature and something man-made was an interesting contrast to this. With every ambition and idea of how this park would shape up, it became obvious that even if we like to call it nature and green space, most urban green spaces are entirely made up, controlled, maintained and designed, but over time nature starts taking over and things become more organic. I like to play with opposites: the geometric and organic, the controlled and perfect, and over-time natural evolution. There was a subtle aim to inspire more time spent outdoors, in nature, in the real world, maybe off screens.
