Why, For Its Debut Sneaker, NikeSKIMS Opted to Cool-ify a Left-Field Tabi
Nike has a lot riding on NikeSKIMS, its line of women's activewear cocreated with Kim Kardashian's multimillion-dollar shapewear empire. So, that the debut NikeSKIMS sneaker is a Mary Jane-style barefoot tabi-toed running shoe really speaks to the potential power of NikeSKIMS. Call it a sign of the times or call it, as Nike surely hopes, a crossover smash, but whatever you call it, the first NikeSKIMS sneaker is anything but expected.
NikeSKIMS created a minimalist and frankly excellent take on Nike's inimitable Air Rift, a satisfyingly strange split-toe barefoot runner that preempted today's tabi craze by several decades. And even with tabi fever at an all-time high, the NikeSKIMS Air Rift still feel like an outré pull.
A trio of black, brown, and even darker brown NikeSKIMS-branded tabi shoes launch January 26 for $150 apiece on SKIMS' and Nike's websites, though the all-black pair stealthily debuted in a recent NikeSKIMS campaign prior to the official reveal. (NikeSKIMS also utilizes Nike sneakers for its web store and seasonal lookbooks — its most recent shots utilized in-line Air Rifts.)
With a major chunk of Nike's revenue riding on demand for NikeSKIMS, the collaborative Air Rift shoes feel like an especially bold play for a first stab at footwear.
Though it initially returned in 2015, Nike really pushed the Air Rift to greater fame over the past year or so with a handful of well-received remakes — the original all-black Air Rift colorway is currently sold out online — but the 30-year-old oddity is still not an "obvious" mass-market sneaker.
I mean, it's an objectively genius shoe, one of my all-time favorite designs and a perfect candidate for the gym. But is it for everyone? NikeSKIMS says so.
Supremely flat lifting- and climbing-style sneakers are already seeing a comeback in the wake of flat-shoe everything. NikeSKIMS' retooled Air Rifts, which strip the shoe's already sleek Mary Jane-ish strap back to a seamless mesh upper, are the style's most extreme manifestation. Their newly squashed sole is counterbalanced by a slightly thicker heel counter but this is a flat one by anyone's metric. (and the "S"-shaped tread pattern underfoot is a tasteful touch.)
Great for lifting and lunging at the gym, good for slipping on for a quick grocery run, and undersung as a daily driver, the Air Rift already has a healthy amount of organic interest in its favor. Previously, it a cultish favorite especially in Japan, where it was never very hard to come by, but a high-profile cosign from bigly buzzy NikeSKIMS may just be all it needs to finally evolve from obscure shoe into populist smash.
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