Nike has drawn inspiration from Moscow’s towering housing blocks and industrial landscape for the “Smoke Gray” design of its commemorative sneakers.
2020 marks 30 years since the release of the Air Max 90, anointed “one of the greatest sneakers of all time” by style standard-bearer GQ.
Nike's special-edition Air Max 90s, which pay homage to the Russian capital with a city-inspired color scheme and Cyrillic text, go on sale in select Moscow retailers and online this Saturday.
The new design is a nod to the Air Max 90 becoming “the first Nike sneaker to be widely recognized in Russia,” the company said in its announcement.
The Smoke Gray color scheme symbolizes Moscow’s “construction and the city’s fall sky,” while infrared and laser blue elements “reflect the city’s night lights.”
“The Nike Air Max 90 Moscow upper, made of classic leather and suede, also features reflective touches to signify the futuristic aesthetic of the skyscrapers that shifted the city's skyline,” it said.
The words skorost’ and gorod (Russian for “speed” and “city”) have been emblazoned on the shoe’s heel and sockliner to “refer to the dynamic rhythm of the megalopolis.”
The Air Max 90 city pack released earlier in 2020 also pays tribute to New York and its firefighters, Paris and its bakers, London and its mail carriers, Tokyo and its construction workers, as well as Shanghai and its delivery service workers.
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