Nike’s most unlikely recent hit—that corduroy one, designed by Sean Wotherspoon—returns.
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Do you know why Nike’s recent Air Max 1/97—a corduroy-covered mashup of Nike’s Air Max 1 and 97 sneakers—has been such a massive hit? I certainly don’t—but the shoe, designed by Sean Wotherspoon, owner of vintage shop Round 2 and noted Nike head, has nonetheless blown up on each of its ultra-brief and even more limited release windows to date. First in November of last year, and then again in March, the multicolored, multi-corduroy sneaker cranked up levels of hype and interest typically reserved only for Nikes with Virgil Abloh’sfingerprints all over them. That being the case, they were pretty damn tough to get. (The shoe is currently fetching more than a thousand bucks on the resale market, per StockX.) Nike knows not to get in the way of a good thing, though, so Wotherspoon’s Air Max 1/97 is coming back today, for what will presumably be a lightning strike’s amount of time, on Nike’s SNKRS app. And it’s for dedicated fans: The drop is open only to fans who previously entered the Nike draw for the sneaker. In the Swoosh’s words: This ain’t your average restock. Instead, it’s what they’re calling the “largest exclusive access drop” yet.
Like most everything else popping off in the sneaker world, the Air Max 1/97 comes from the school of maximalist design. The shoe gets no fewer than seven shades of corduroy, a multicolored sole, and the kind of two-model hybrid construction usually reserved for unremarkable basketball shoes. It’s…a lot. But this isn’t exactly a typical Nike production, either. For one, it’s not designed by deities like Tinker Hatfield or Virgil—it comes from the hand of a cool dude with a consignment shop. Nor is it standard Nike design. Forget higher and faster and stronger; the Air Max 1/97 is higher, and higher, and higher. Which might go a ways toward explaining why this most unlikely hit has proven so popular. Nike’s not exactly known for zigging when the industry zags—the Swoosh decides what the zag is in the first place, and lets everyone else react. This time, though, the biggest, baddest sneaker company in all the land let things get weird. And weird’s been a smart choice.
$160, available May 2 via Nike’s SNKRS app