j-hope and Nigo Remix Nike’s Air Force 1 ’01, Squirrels and Rope Laces Included

The squirrel is the giveaway. On the Nike x Nigo x j-hope Air Force 1, which Nike unveiled on Thursday (Oct. 8), a squirrel is embroidered on the heel counter and more of them line the insole, and Nike says the squirrel graphics are there to capture j-hope’s “energetic spirit.” Around them is a glossy two-tone upper in shades Nike calls Burnt Sunrise and Metallic Gold, cut with Chlorine Blue accents and laced with braided, multicolored rope where the cotton laces would normally go.

The shoe is built on the 2001 Air Force 1, the slimmer, narrower-toed version that Nigo and Nike’s designers brought back for his multi-season Air Force 1 World Tour. That series kicked off in April with a patent-leather pair inspired by LO2, the early-’90s magazine column Nigo ran with Jun Takahashi. This time the collaborators’ names replace the usual branding: “J-Hope Air” and “Nigo Air” sit on the tongue tags and heel tabs, Complex notes, and the custom box prints both names above the Swoosh, per Billboard. Nike pitches the whole thing as 1990s Tokyo nostalgia meeting modern global stardom, built around j-hope’s signature “Hobicore” aesthetic.

j-hope zeroed in on the materials and the laces in Nike’s announcement.

I really like the harmony of the enamel material colour that Nigo expressed. And the special shoelace details that I haven't seen often bring out the charm of the sneakers even more. It's so good.

j-hope, Nike

Nigo, for his part, framed the pairing as a handoff. “I think j-hope is one of the few people who can become a true ambassador for culture and help carry it forward to the next generation,” he said in the same release. The two already have history: they put out a “HUMAN HOPE” collection through Nigo’s label Human Made in 2025, and this pair was first spotted on foot at the Human Made flagship in Tokyo before Nike made it official, Hypebeast reports. It is their first sneaker together. The Harajuku store, Human Made’s first flagship, opened last month in the neighborhood where the brand began.

For Nigo, the Air Force 1 is familiar ground. The Bapesta, which he released in 2002 through A Bathing Ape, the label he founded in 1993, borrowed the Air Force 1’s shape and swapped the Swoosh for a star with a lightning bolt. He makes records too: his 2022 album I Know Nigo!, co-executive produced with Pharrell, brought in A$AP Rocky, Tyler, the Creator, Pusha T and Lil Uzi Vert, among others, according to Wikipedia.

The shoe launches Oct. 17 through Human Made, with a global release following on Oct. 22. Nike says more World Tour styles are on the way, and that they will keep drawing on Nigo’s friends, influences and personal history.