Nike Trades White Pearls For Black Leather On Its Newest Air Force 1 Special Edition

A women’s exclusive Air Force 1 ’07 SE swaps the crisp white base of 2022’s pearl-studded release for jet black, set for a December 1 release overseas.

Nike is revisiting one of its more understated Air Force 1 treatments, and flipping the hue nar in the process. Where 2022’s pearl-studded ’07 SE kept things bright and bridal on triple white leather, the newest version pushes the same jewelry-adjacent detailing onto an all-black build, due for a December 1 rel outside Japan under the style code IQ0133-001. It arrives as a small, deliberate vary rather than a redesign, the kind of rel that tends to move shh through Nike’s women’s lineup and then show up everywhere once people actually have it in hand.

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The Air Force 1 was design by Bruce Kilgore and rel by Nike in 1982 as the first basketball shoe built around visible Nike Air cushion, part of a wave of show basketball footwear the brand pushed through the early 1980s. Its name nods to Air Force One, the aircraft that carries the President of the United States, and its form, a thick cupsole, a leather panel upper broken into distinct toe, vamp, and quarter sections, and a Swoosh running the length of the side panel, has barely changed in more than four decades. What has changed constantly is the surface treatment: patent leather, suede, embossed branding, and rhinestone-style embellishments have all cycled through the model’s special editions over the years, turning a shoe built for the hardwood into one of the more reliable canvases in Nike’s entire lineup.

That flexible is also why the AF1 keeps surfacing outside shoe culture proper, in music videos, on runways, and in fashion editorial, a crossover Nike leans into deliberate by treat the shade less like a retro re-run and more like a rotate design exercise. Nike’s women’s-specific lineup in particular has leaned into premium and decorative finishes over the past few years, and the ’07 SE line, the tier this black pearl rel sits within, function as the brand’s regular outlet for those smaller, jewelry-adjacent update rather than full profile overhaul. It sits a step below true collide and limit “LX” premium rel in Nike’s own internal hierarchy, which is part of why these pearl-stud pair tend to arrive with compare little fanfare relative to how often they get re-worn once they’re out.

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The pearl motif itself dates to March 2022, when Nike rel a women’s exclusive Air Force 1 Low under the style code DQ0231-100 for a $120 retail price, timed to the silhouette’s 40th anniversary. That pair kept things close to the original AF1 formula, a mix of smooth and tumble white leather panel, but scattere small pearl-style stud across the vamp and side panel, with a few stud finish in a Swoosh shape. It read as a quieter alternative to Nike’s more maximalist jewel AF1 outings, follow the Swarovski-embellish Air Force 1 connect that preced it by about a year, favor scale and restraint over shine.

This new ’07 SE keeps that same restraint but inverts the palette. The upper runs black throughout, primarily smooth leather, with the Swoosh and panel switches kept in match black rather than contrast. Metallic Summit White studs are placed with deliberate space around the eye stay, toe box, quarter panel, and heel, catch light against the dark leather instead of blend into a light one. The Nike Air branding on the tongue and heel is render in a brighter finish to match, and the sole unit, cushion by a Nike Air midsole and grip by a pivot-circle rubber outsole at the forefoot and heel, stays black to keep the studs as the only real point of contrast. The effect land closer to costume jewelry against a black outfit than the bridal-white original, a small enough shift that it function more as a companion colorway than a redesign, and a practical one for anyone who wanted the detail without the upkeep of an all-white pair. Nike has continue return to pearl detail on the AF1 periodic since 2022, include a separate all-white “Pearl Stud Swoosh” Low expected later this year, suggesting the stud treatment has settle into a recur, if minor, part of the silhouette’s rotate rather than a one-off anniversary gesture.

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The Air Force 1’s design history, the 2022 Pearls release, and the gen construction details here are support indie across shoe retail list and rel coverage. The specific style code (IQ0133-001), the December 1 rel date, and the “overseas” frame used to describe it come from a Japan market rel notice and could not be indie confirm against Nike’s own current product list at time of writing. Pricing for the new pair is also unconfirm; the 2022 Pearls rel retailed at $120, and Nike’s ’07 SE tier has generally sat in the $110 to $130 range in the years since, which offer a reasonable ballpark rather than a confirmed figure. The women’s-exclusive frame is constant with how Nike has position every pearl-treated AF1 to date, which lend the detail some credible, but the exact date, code, and price should be treat as report rather than confirm until Nike’s own SNKRS or retail pages reflect them.