Victory Lap Radio Signs On in Black Patent With Its Own Nike Air Force 1 Mid

The tongue label reads like a station ident, the outsole carries the logo underfoot, and the whole Mid is cut in black patent for a Holiday 2026 broadcast.

Victory Lap Radio has spent seven years handing London rappers a microphone, and its sneaker partner with Nikenow puts the station’s name on an ankle strap. The pair is an Air Force 1 Mid, style code JA7806-001, finished in Black/Light Crimson-Black: smooth black leather underlays, glossy black patent overlays, and red held back for the small parts, the tongue labels, the heel badges, a spare set of laces. It arrives beside a far louder Air Force 1 Low from the same partnership, and the two land as a set, one dressed for daylight and one for the late slot.

Signal. What happened: Victory Lap Radio, the London rap and cypher platform founded by Joseph McDermott in 2019, has a black patent Nike Air Force 1 Mid on the way as half of its first reported footwear collide with Nike. Exact object: Victory Lap Radio x Nike Air Force 1 Mid “Black,” style code JA7806-001, colorway Black/Light Crimson-Black, listed at $140 in Japan market rel information but not yet priced by Nike itself. When and where: autumn and winter 2026, with US listicle pointing to a Holiday 2026 rel through SNKRS and select retailers; a Japan rel date has not been announced. Source: a Japan market rel notice dated October 11, 2026, together with official Nike product imagery; Nike has not yet published its own launch page. Why it matters: Air Force 1 collaborations tend to run through designers, labels and individual artists, and this one hands the silhouette to a platform whose whole identity is built on other people’s voices.

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The details are where the radio comes through. A label on the tongue reads “You are now listening to Victory Lap Radio London on air,” set above a red circular badge carrying a numeral 1, and the same red disc returns at the heel. According to the Japan release notice, the heel logo and the lettering on the ankle strap are embossed into the leather rather than printed, which keeps the black upper quiet from any real distance. Metal aglets are stamped VLAP, the platform’s shorthand, and a second set of red flat laces comes in the box.

Underfoot, a translucent outsole carries the Victory Lap Radio logo embedded in the rubber. The insole is printed with the platform’s cartoon mascot, a small black figure in headphones gripping a red Swoosh, and the same character comes as a metal keychain packed with the shoes. The box itself is black, with the Victory Lap logo stamped in red on the lid.

The strap matters more on this silhouette than on most. Bruce Kilgore’s original 1982 Air Force 1 was a high-top with an ankle strap, its cut borrowed from a Nike hiking boot, and the first basketball shoe to carry Nike Air; on the Mid, that strap is fixed to the shoe rather than removable, which turns it into a permanent banner for whatever a collaborator wants to say. Victory Lap uses it for its own name.

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Victory Lap began as a label for some recordings. In 2019 McDermott was in New York with friends, a mix of skaters, MCs and producers, who had spent their evenings sitting in at local radio stations; as the trip wound down they needed a name to upload the sets under, and Victory Lap stuck, as Dazed recounted in 2025. Back in London he pitched for a monthly slot on Balamii, the Peckham station that broadcasts out of a converted lock-up, and the show grew from there, borrowing pirate radio’s habit of giving airtime to artists nobody else was booking.

The fish-eye cypher videos, shot in a studio papered with Polaroids, became the house style. In June 2023 Dave and Central Cee chose the platform, and only the platform, to promote their joint tape. By spring 2025 a cohort of Victory Lap rappers had the Dazed cover, with McDermott telling the magazine the project was “built on genuine community and friendship.” That summer, Fred again.., Skepta and PlaqueBoyMax released “Victory Lap,” a single several reviewers read as a nod to the platform, and it climbed to No. 4 on the UK chart.

The sessions now travel. Through NTS, Victory Lap has hosted PinkPantheress and friends in its studio in July 2025, a bonus round with Denzel Curry and TiaCorine in February 2026, and an April 2026 cypher that took the format to Madrid. The emphasis has stayed on the room rather than the scoreboard, closer to a session than a clash.

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The Mid’s partner is the Air Force 1 Low “Pine Green,” style code JA7805-302, in Pine Green/Light Crimson-Grey Fog-White. Where the Mid goes dark, the Low runs green patent overlays against light grey panels, adds a white leather Swoosh and a co-branded tongue tag trimmed in red, and carries printed insoles plus more Victory Lap branding beneath a transparent outsole. Official images of the Low began circulating at the start of October, and the Mid followed roughly a week later.

Pricing is still the open question. The Japan rel notice lists the Mid at $140, while US release listings for both pairs show the price as to be announced, and Nike has not confirmed a figure or a date for either shoe. Both are slated for SNKRS and select retailers in the Holiday 2026 window, and as of October 11, no Japanese release date had been set for either pair.