CARPET COMPANY SALOMON HABIBI EXPRESS 1720 PAIRS $170

The first run was ten tees for their skate friends. Ayman and Osama Abdeldayem printed them on a secondhand machine in a Baltimore basement in 2015 with no funding, no design background, and no plan beyond next week. The machine they learned on is still in the building. The Salomon XT-Whisper Void "Habibi Express" is what that basement eventually produced. 1,720 pairs at $170, individually numbered, available through Salomon.com and Carpetco.us as of May 21. The global release came six days after the Baltimore retail exclusive. Every number in the edition count is a coordinate. ## Ayman and Osama Abdeldayem Started in a Baltimore Basement Carpet Company was founded in 2015 by two first generation Egyptian Americans who learned to skate through an old Toy Machine tape. The brand grew in Station North, the same Baltimore neighborhood where they later renovated a warehouse, then a new space called The Bank, opening soon as a shop, gallery, and community space. The brand's trajectory since that basement: a Nike SB Dunk collaboration in 2023, Vans Skate Cab 4 and Skate Half Cab collabs, and now Salomon. [Palace did something structurally similar with Dick Jewell](/quick/palace-dick-jewell-pimlico-top-dog-buffalo-era-summer-2026-drop-2-may-15-w9k3m5xr): take a specific cultural reference with real archive weight, build the product around that reference rather than the logo, and let the story be the marketing. For Carpet, that reference is closer to home. ## 1,720 Pairs. The Number Is Their Warehouse Address. The edition count of 1,720 pairs is not a round number. It is 1720 Llewelyn Avenue, Baltimore, the warehouse address where the Habibi Express van is stored. Carpet Company named the collab after their 1995 Honda Acty Street van, a high gloss red micro-van with devil horns mounted on top and tinted windows the brand has used since their early years. The van is the source file for the shoe. The high gloss red upper references the van's body. Iridescent TPU overlays and panels reference the tinted windows. The devil horns made it onto the shoe. Each of the 1,720 pairs is individually numbered, meaning the person who buys pair 1720 gets the last one, which also happens to be the address number. That is not a coincidence. That is a brand that has been thinking about this for a long time. ## Iridescent Panels. Devil Horns. The Van Made the Shoe. The XT-Whisper Void "Habibi Express" runs in what Carpet describes as a high gloss red finish with prismatic TPU elements. The Sensifit construction hugs the foot, the Quicklace system draws from Salomon's trail running toolkit, and the Agile Chassis underfoot handles the load. The technical architecture is Salomon's. The visual language is entirely the van. Detail work like this separates a collaboration from a licensing deal. [Brain Dead's Equipment collection from this month](/quick/brain-dead-equipment-justin-fung-oasis-volume-1-old-la-zoo-climbing-may-2026-r7k4m2nx) uses a similar method: the product references a specific archive object and the buyer who recognizes the reference gets more out of the purchase. The Habibi Express takes that further because the archive object is Carpet Company's own property, not a cultural citation from outside. ## Salomon's XT-Whisper Void Was a 2000 Women's Trail Shoe The XT-Whisper Void silhouette launched in 2000 as a women's trail running shoe. It has a 3D mesh upper, a streamlined last built for natural foot movement, and Salomon's Agile Chassis underfoot. The Void name refers to a pared down version of the XT-Whisper, originally designed for lighter trail use. Salomon's rise in streetwear over the past several years runs through XT-6 and XT-4 collabs with brands including Aime Leon Dore and Maison Margiela, but the XT-Whisper Void has fewer collab miles on it. Carpet Company is among the first brands to work with the silhouette at this level of design specificity. For a shoe that started in a women's trail running context in 2000, arriving as a numbered edition Baltimore skate collab in 2026 represents a 26-year arc that neither party could have planned. ## $170 for a Shoe That Has One Source and One Story $170 matches the standard retail for the XT-Whisper Void. Carpet Company and Salomon kept the price at the base market rate, not the collaboration premium. That is the same decision [Adidas built their 2026 campaign architecture around](/quick/adidas-built-together-believed-together-champions-together-and-meant-all-three-mpfz8z0q): price access at fan level, let the product carry the cultural weight. 1,720 individually numbered pairs at the regular Salomon price point means the secondary market sets the collector premium. On StockX and Grailed, the Habibi Express will trade above $170 not because of the Salomon branding but because of the address in the edition number. The buyer who knows that 1720 Llewelyn is the warehouse where the van lives pays the collector rate. The buyer who does not still gets a technically sound $170 trail shoe with iridescent panels and devil horns. Both transactions are correct.