Nike Air Troupe Mid

This month Nike introduced the all new Air Troupe Mid, a shoe initially inspired by hip hop dancing. Over two years of research and development have gone into the design of the Nike Air Troupe Mid.

Having seen that hip hop dancers tend to wear footwear like the Nike Dunk, the designers created a shoe that had a similar style but with more flexibility. Flex grooves were applied in the forefoot for multidirectional forefoot flexibility, with a flex notch included in the forefoot upper. To help support the common slip-and-slide motion of these dancers, they designed a Phylon outsole with rubber on the perimeter to help the dancers stop when sliding. Lining the toe area helped to protect dancers’ feet while dancing. To further take on power moves with confidence, a reinforced and padded toe-box protects and cushions the foot for 360° motion, while internal dynamic gore strapping is specifically designed to hold the foot securely in place.

Definitely an interesting new shoe and Nike shows that function and design can actually go hand in hand.

Check out the first two colorways of the Nike Air Troupe Mid in detail after the jump.