The Nike Air Max Dress Shoe Is a Loco Formal-Sportswear Crossover
The Nike x Air Afrique Air Max RK61 isn’t a sneaker. Not really. This is a leather dress shoe, a close relative to a formal Oxford shoe, built as though it were a Nike sneaker.
To put it simply, Air Max RK61 is a combo of sporty and formal footwear codes that were never meant to cross over.
Air Afrique, a Parisian creative collective named after a shuttered Pan African airline, is the mastermind behind this curious hybrid concoction.
“The notion of Air is deeply connected to our history,” said Ahmadou-Bamba Thiam, editor of Air Afrique's magazine. “We also speak of Air as a symbolic, metaphorical elevation through culture and humanity. This concept was really our starting point for the product design.”
More tangibly, Air Afrique infused a dress shoe's heel with the Air bubble that’s been providing bounce to Nike's Air Max sneakers for decades.
The tubular air unit of an Air Max 1 sneaker is, frankly, a bizarre fit for this semi-formal form. Not that the shoe’s upper sticks to conventions, mind you.
A zip closure like that found on techy ‘90s Nike sneakers is attached to the top of the RK61 shoe, its pull shaped like the original Air Afrique airline’s logo.
This Air Afrique Air Max does feel like a natural successor to Nike’s recent Air Max sneaker-loafer made with the Serena Williams Design Collective.
It’s a similar mashup of disparate footwear styles, has the signature cushioning of an Air Max, keeps the Nike branding to a minimum, and all feels like an especially timely mashup.
However, there is one major difference.
Where Nike's loafer is only available in women’s sizes, the Air Afrique Air Max will arrive on Nike's website in all sizes come October 9.
In the ‘80s, Nike released its sporty Vagabond loafer. Plus, G-Dragon’s Nike Kwondo from 2021 arguably offers a more extreme form of hybridized formal shoe. The Nike x Air Afrique Air Max RK61 is an admittedly unorthodox crossover, but it's also classic Nike.
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