Nike Turns the Air Force 1 Into a Record Sleeve for “Air Soul”

A new Family Reunion colorway trades the collection’s white leather for a black and cinnamon build, tying the Air Force 1 to vinyl culture instead of architecture.

The Air Force 1 has spent four decades away from the hardwood it was built for. Designed by Bruce Kilgore in 1982 as one of the first basketball shoes to carry Nike’s Air cushioning, the low top became a Harlem staple long before it became a runway fixture, and Nike has spent the past several years mining that afterlife for new storytelling angles. The latest is Family Reunion, a three-colorway pack that reroutes the AF1 through different regional threads of hip-hop culture. “Air Soul” is the entry built around music itself, landing in a black and cinnamon colorway on August 28, 2026 through SNKRS and select retailers for $125.

Where a lot of Nike storytelling packs lean on loud graphics, this one works closer to the surface. The base shoe stays a familiar low-top Air Force 1, and the cultural reference points show up in small, deliberate places rather than across the whole upper.

stir

Nike lists the official colorway as Black/Black/Cinnamon/Black under style code IW2353-001, and the build reads darker than that name suggests. A black base is layered with a glossy cinnamon-toned leather panel, the kind of finish that shifts between black and a deep burgundy depending on how light hits it, while the Swoosh, mouth, tongue, and sole stay locked in flat black around it. Nike has kept the pack’s full materials breakdown under wraps ahead of release, so the exact panel construction is still officially unconfirmed, but the same warm-versus-cool contrast trick shows up across all three Family Reunion colorways.

Nike Air Black And Burgundy Leather Heel Detail

That contrast gets one more twist at the laces. Bright orange laces and gold-toned lace dubraes sit against the dark upper as the shoe’s loudest accent, with a second, more muted black and blue lace set included for anyone who wants to dial the color story back.

actual

Family Reunion’s music references tend to hide in the details rather than the silhouette itself. Across the pack, Nike has used circular graphics on lace dubraes, heels, and insoles to nod at vinyl records and turntable pivot points, a device the brand has already confirmed on the collection’s companion colorway. On “Air Soul,” that same vocabulary reportedly extends further: mismatched left and right insole graphics styled after a record label, heel branding kept to a simple “NIKE AIR” mark, and handwritten-style lettering on the tongue referencing an LP’s “long playing” designation. Those specific callouts come from early release materials rather than an official Nike product page, so they’re worth treating as expected rather than confirmed until Nike’s own listing goes live.

huh

“Air Soul” isn’t traveling alone. The Family Reunion collection also includes a Laser colorway (style code IV5754-100, $140) done in white leather with laser-etched arabesque patterns across the toe box and quarter panels, a reference to Islamic art and architecture found throughout North Africa. Circular dubrae and insole graphics there lean into the same turntable-and-vinyl language, with an orange colorway called “Marrakesh” naming the shoe after the Moroccan city. A third pair, a Luxe colorway in Black/Anthracite/Metallic Silver (style code JA3822-010, $140), rounds out the set with a more understated, materials-driven approach. Together, the three pairs treat the AF1 less as a single design statement and more as a shared canvas for tracing hip-hop’s reach into different regions and eras, from North African view to the physical object of the record itself.

fin

All three Family Reunion pairs are currently expected on August 28, 2026 through SNKRS and select Nike retailers, with “Air Soul” priced at $125 and its Laser and Luxe counterparts at $140 apiece. Nike has not yet published an official product page or full materials list for “Air Soul” specifically, and the collection as a whole has appeared through early retailer and media listings rather than a formal Nike announcement, so pricing, exact release timing, and the finer construction details remain subject to change until Nike confirms them directly.

What is consistent across every early listing is the throughline: a shoe built in 1982 for basketball, still finding new rooms to walk into more than forty years later, this time by way of a record sleeve.

For more on nike, see The Nike Dunk Low University Gold: A Golden Era in Sneaker Culture.

For more on nike, see Nike Blazer x Kaws x Sacai Low.