Nike’s Women’s Shox TL Turns Red Plaid for Fall

Nike runs the women’s Shox TL back through plaid, this time in black, Tough Red and Yellow Ochre, landing overseas on October 2 at $180.

Nike has given its women’s Shox TL a second coat of plaid. The new pair, style code IM5167-002, wraps the 2003 runner’s upper in a black grid check crossed with red and yellow lines, and it is scheduled to reach Nike retailers outside Japan on October 2, 2026, at $180, the same price Nike charges for the standard women’s Shox TL on its US store.

Signal. What happened: Nike is rel a red plaid version of the women’s Shox TL, a follow-up to the yellow check pair issued earlier this year under the same IM5167 style code. Exact object: Nike Women’s Shox TL “Plaid,” Black/Black/Tough Red/Yellow Ochre, style code IM5167-002. When and where: October 2, 2026 at Nike retailers outside Japan, priced at $180; a Japanese rel date and yen price have not been confirmed. Source: a Japan market release notice for the date and price, with the product name and colorway matching a Nike Sportswear listing in ShopAR’s 3D product library and the pair already appearing on Farfetch. Why it matters: the colorway extends the plaid story Nike has been running across the Air Force 1, Air Max 90 and Shox TL this year, moving the Shox TL from summer’s pop-culture yellow into a darker, more autumnal red. Earlier: a Sept report on the Shox TL SE “Black/Volt/Anthracite” (IR2102-003).

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The fabric changes, but the hardware does not. Nike describes the current Shox TL as a near-exact replica of the 2003 original, and the mechanics are the same ones that made the shoe stand out two decades ago. Resilient columns paired with moderator plates run the full length of the sole, compressing on impact and springing back into shape. Molded overlays wrap the midfoot for support, and a TPU plate at the heel adds lateral stability.

That full-length column layout was the TL’s defining move. Nike Shox cushion first reached shelves in 2000, and its profile got an enormous boost that summer when Vince Carter dunked over France’s 7-foot-2 center at the Sydney Olympics in the Shox BB4. Earlier Shox models concentrated the columns at the heel. The TL, short for Total, stretched them from heel to toe, which is why the 2003 silhouette still looks more machine than sneaker from the side. The shoe went on to a second life well beyond the running track: Culted’s history of the Shox line traces how the TL and the R4 became fixtures of British youth culture, the grime scene in particular, long before the current revival.

The revival has leaned heavily on women’s sizing. Nike’s US women’s Shox TL page currently lists more than a dozen colorways at $180, spanning metallics, pastels and tonal blacks, alongside spinoffs such as the Shox TL Fade. Plaid is a sharp turn from that palette, swapping chrome and mesh for a pattern more often found on shirts and skirts than on technical runners.

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The red pair arrives as the second half of a set. Its yellow sibling, IM5167-001 in Black/White/Yellow Ochre/Black, landed in the summer and picked up the nickname “Clueless” almost immediately, thanks to its resemblance to the yellow plaid suit worn by Cher Horowitz in Clueless, the 1995 teen comedy whose wardrobe still circulates as a fashion reference.

That plainer framing runs across the family. The brand’s US site carries the women’s Air Force 1 ’07 “Plaid” in Multi-Color/Yellow Ochre/White/Black (IR5596-900) at $125 and the women’s Air Max 90 “Plaid” in Black/White/Yellow Ochre (IR5598-001) at $135, both built on the same Yellow Ochre check that defined the first Shox TL.

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According to the same Japan market release notice, red check is now spreading to those models as well. The Air Force 1 ’07 is said to place a red checked panel on the quarter and heel tab against a black body, while the Air Max 90 brings deep red to the collar, heel and Swoosh. Neither red pair was listed on Nike’s US store at the time of writing, and no style codes or release dates for them have surfaced, so the details remain unconfirmed. The pattern, if it holds, mirrors how the yellow version rolled out: one check, three sil, each showing the plaid in a different proportion.

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The red Shox TL has already turned up on resale-adjacent channels. The Farfetch listing, added to Lyst on September 24, prices the pair at $363, roughly double the $180 retail. Japan is the open question. Release notices from the Japanese market have so far given no domestic date for either the red pair or its yellow sibling, and no yen price has been published for the plaid Shox TL. On the morning of the overseas release, the IM5167-002 had not yet appeared among the colorways on Nike’s US women’s Shox TL page.