Stüssy & Nike Are Waffling Over Running Shoes (or Not)
Something is possibly afoot with Nike and Stüssy, literally.
On January 30, sneaker sample collector Carter Wang posted a picture of a pair of yellowish green mesh Nike sneakers with “Stüssy” printed on the back heel, where the Nike imprint is usually found. On the inside heel, they’re also stamped with “sample,” so it’s unclear if this is a true first look or just a shoe sample that was never actually mass-produced.
That would be a shame, at least for the account’s 7000-plus followers, who heavily commented that the sneakers were “hard” and indeed they are.
The potential Stüssy x Nike collab is sleek, with a mesh upper, suede toe, and a black swoosh and laces, something one could easily imagine in the pantheon of solid Nike collabs.
Stüssy's "new" Nike shoes are also very similar to the LD Waffle collab Nike created with sacai in 2021 and the Daybreak it created with Undercover in 2019, at least in terms of the overall shape and sole. So where did these come from? And if they are real to-be-released sneakers, when?
Our feet may never know.
If they were just samples that never made it to a factory line, it’s possible they were part of a brainstorm for Nike and Stüssy’s more recent Fall 2023 collab which would be odd because of how different these shoes are from what the collaborators have recently been up to.
In addition to apparel, Stüssy and Nike created a new look for the Air Flight 89, complete with bold colors and snakeskin details. They look nothing like the pair of kicks posted on January 30, so it doesn’t really look like these would have been part of that collection.
So maybe this means something new is in fact on the way. Or maybe they're just old AF. Only Nike and Stüssy know for sure.
