Nike Sets the Air Force 1 Low Ablaze in a Full Orange Fur Coat

A sample-stage “Orange Faux Fur” AF1 pushes Nike’s decades of hairy-material experiments to their most saturated extreme yet.

A sample of the Air Force 1 Low has surfaced in an almost total orange faux fur wrap, carrying the style code IR1940-800 and a listed colorway of Campfire Orange, White, and Sunset. The shoe is dated for a possible 2026 release, though nothing about its production status has been confirmed beyond the sample stage.

Designed by Bruce Kilgore for Nike as a basketball shoe in 1982, the Air Force 1 has spent more than four decades absorbing whatever material experiment a given era throws at it. Snakeskin, crocodile embossing, denim, canvas, and patent leather have all taken turns on the upper without disturbing the shoe’s basic white-leather identity underneath.

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Hairy materials occupy a specific lane within that history. Nike’s Japan operation is generally credited with pushing pony hair and harako-style leather into serious rotation, starting with the WMNS Air Force 1 Zebra released through Nike’s CO.JP arm in 2005. That release set a template that resurfaces periodically, most visibly in recent long-hair executions like the Air Force 1 Low Pink Pony Hair, which took the concept further with an exaggerated, almost shaggy texture across the upper.

Close-up of the orange faux fur Nike Air Force 1 sample, highlighting its shaggy layered construction, tonal Swoosh, and classic white midsole.

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The Orange Faux Fur sample takes that hairy-material lineage and drenches it in a single, unrelenting color. Long-pile fur covers the toe box, side panels, eye stay, heel, and even the Swoosh, while the laces, interior lining, and outsole are dyed to match. The result reads less like a subtle accent and more like a full costume change for a shoe that usually leans on white leather as its anchor point.

That kind of total-coverage treatment is rare even within the AF1’s fur history, where hairy panels have typically been confined to specific zones rather than the entire upper. Whether the final retail version, if one materializes, keeps the same density of fur or dials it back is one of several details still unresolved at the sample stage.

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The sample’s combination of animal-textured hair and a loud, single-tone colorway recalls the Air Force 1 Low Savage Beast from 2009, a release that leaned into wild, exotic-skin patterning rather than a flat color story. That pair carried its own distinct swagger through mixed animal prints; the 2026 sample trades pattern variety for color intensity, betting that a single blast of orange fur can carry the same attitude on its own.

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Nike has not issued an official announcement for the pair, and industry chatter around it treats it explicitly as a sample rather than a locked release. That leaves open the possibility that the final colorway, materials, or even the decision to bring it to market at all could shift before 2026. Sample-stage Nike products surface with some regularity without ever reaching shelves, and this one carries that same caveat.

For now, the Orange Faux Fur AF1 stands as another data point in a pattern that has held since 2005: hairy materials keep finding their way back onto Nike’s most classic silhouette, and each pass tends to push the concept a little further than the last.