When it comes to shoes, it's hard to be surprised. There are so many different collaborations and mashups on a daily basis that it almost seems like nothing can truly make you pause and take a second glance — until now. Nike x artist Nathan Bell's upcoming sneakers are something truly worth the wait, where the pastel pink shoes look like a page ripped out of your fifth grade notebook with its doodles and scrawls.
It's like the unofficial Valentine's Day shoe of the year, where the piece looks like its covered in the playful doodles of a girl unwilling to pay attention in class, and instead picked up her pen and let her imagination wander with her ballpoint.
But let's get into the specifics of the shoe. Bell is an artist and avid runner who has partnered with Nike to share his take on the Nike Zoom Fly SP sneaker. A sporty, curved shoe that is "designed to meet the demands of your toughest tempo runs, long runs, and race days," it has a lightweight support system that pushes your foot to keep running and reaching for its next stride.
Because that particular sneaker model is a performance shoe, it has been transformed into a mural of race-themed scrawls and quotes. Boasting a kind of DIY aesthetic, the shoe looks like its covered in Sharpie-written quotes, where the "handwritten" messages are all running related and celebrate running as a competition with yourself.
For example, quotes like "last one gets a rotten egg," “I can’t feel my legs," and "try & stop me" are peppered across the shoe itself, accompanied with doodles of daisies on the toes, twinkling sparkles on the sides, markered-in Nike "swoops," and a cluster of eggs. On the sole of the running shoe is also the phrase "know finish lines" with the word "no" boxed, creating the double meaning of "no finish lines."
The other side of the shoe gets even more junior high, where the phrase "run to a magical place" is scrawled, accompanied by a doodle of a sneaker with a unicorn horn attached to its toes. Next to that is the quote "running to keep from crying," which is accented with a group of tear drops and an exaggerated frown face. Then there is a cheeky spoof of the well known "runner's high" phenomenon, where the side of the shoe reads "runners high, runners mid, runners low." Pun-y.
But the tongue-in-cheek vibe doesn't end there. If you take a peek on the inside of the shoe, there is a Sharpie-d in Nike logo, as well as a hand-drawn circle with the words "tag, you're it" written inside with bubble letters. Everything about the shoe is straight out of a person's childhood, making it a blast from middle school angst and journal culture.
It's a motivational and unexpected shoe, and its pastel pink hue is the perfect color scheme for its Valentine's Day drop. Fans will be able to snap up the shoes on Feb. 14 at nike.com for $150. Don't sleep on it or it will be gone before you know it.
