A Rare Nike Air Max Collaboration Is Releasing for the First Time in 20 Years
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It’s not often that Nike does a full-fledged reissue of past Air Max collaborations — Japanese retailer Atmos’ various “Animal Pack” styles and 2021’s Clot x Air Max 1 come to mind as recent examples — but the Beaverton, Ore.-based sportswear brand has another big project up its sleeve this year.
Rumors of a HUF x Nike Air Max 1 retro hit sneaker outlets in August 2023, but it wasn’t until earlier this year that in-hand images of the retro surfaced. Finally, HUF on Friday confirmed the collaboration to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the original. The brand’s Instagram teaser features the tongue of the 2024 version in the original “Dark Apple” colorway (now known as “Pear”), but that’s not all the two brands have lined up.
The HUF x Nike Air Max 1 makes use of a greyscale colorway, adding pops of “Pear” green on the branding, liner, and outsole. Made predominantly of grey nubuck, its standout feature is a shiny cracked leather mudguard. For years, the collaboration has been one of the more coveted pairs in the Air Max lineage, although original 2004 pairs are usually unwearable due to age.
Along with the green pair that most fans know, the HUF x Air Max 1 was created in two matching sample colors boasting “Brilliant Orange” and pink accents, respectively. Those pairs never made it to retail in 2004, but leaks indicate that both unreleased pairs will launch sometime this summer. That information is supported by early in-hand images of the “Brilliant Orange” pair (pictured below), although specific release details for that style have not been announced.
Founded in 2002 by the late Keith Hufnagel in San Francisco, HUF was a formative skateboard and streetwear brand in the early aughts. Hufnagel died of brain cancer at the age of 46 in September 2020.
The HUF x Nike Air Max 1 “Pear” will release Saturday, June 15 from HUF. A follow-up release from Nike’s SNKRS app is also expected.
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