The Nike Air Max 95 has a deep rooted connection to the UK. Scousers swear by them, your favourite MC still has a pair of 110s in rotation, and only the best London streetwear brands have got a collaboration. It's a shoe that carries 30 years of UK history with every step, but one that doesn't rely on its past, building on its legacy to this day.
Fast forward to today and your favourite MC still has a pair of 110s in rotation, only the best London streetwear brands have got a collaboration and yet it proudly carries 30 years of UK history with each and every step.
via @hotelcreative
These few examples only start to paint the picture of the personal connections to this iconic Nike. The cultural weight of the Air Max 95 in Britain is hard to sum up in words, but trying to explore these connections is the least we can do for a shoe that has left such an imprint on UK culture.
From Running Innovation to Cultural Object
The year is 1995 and Nike has just come out with its new addition to its Air Max series – the Air Max (it didn’t get the ’95 name on the label until the late ‘90s, also known as the Air Max SC, Air Total Max SC and Air Dual Max within the following years).
Walking into your local sports shops like Frank Johnsons in Brixton, Meteor Sports in Bethnal Green or JD Sports up in Bury, you’d be greeted by a wave of white running trainers and that new shoe smell. But it wouldn’t take long for that pop of Neon Yellow to leap out at you, runner or not, your eyes were glued to that shoe.
Costing a total of £110 back then (more than £230 in today’s money), it was a proper premium running shoe from Nike, and it got credited as such. Praised in Runner’s World Magazine by the technical footwear nerds, the Air Max 95 was just as highly regarded outside the performance world, an achievement that Lozano himself could not have predicted.
Skint Records' owner in "Comet Red" 110
Walking into your local sports shops like Frank Johnsons in Brixton, Meteor Sports in Bethnal Green or JD Sports up in Bury, you’d be greeted by a wave of white running trainers and that new shoe smell.
A Shoe Finds Britain
It came to a point when you could not escape the Air Max 95. The shoe managed to make it into all facets of life, nowhere was too good for a pair of Air Max 95s. Red carpets, raves, schools, catwalks and on the benches of the world’s biggest football clubs – you could spot them near enough anywhere. But how did that come to be?
via @airmaxchizz
Well it wasn’t as much marketing as much as it was word of mouth. Seeing is believing and people were certainly seeing the Air Max 95 at an increasing rate. Sure, the Air Max franchise had already established a reputation in the UK since 1987, but that only did so much of the heavy lifting.
Runners bought the Air Max 95 because of its rave reviews, some even stopped their London marathon run to get married in them, though this was more of a one rather than a regular occurrence.
via @wirralwebs
Liverpool and Manchester adopted it as cultural status, naming the trainer ‘110’ after its price tag – the shoe was expensive, and people wanted others to know they had money. But, if you didn’t hear about it from friends or family, you could read about the Air Max 95s in your local Newspaper, with columns talking about how expensive the trainers were, or how people were getting them nicked straight off their feet.
DJ Daniel Bailey Homelands Festival 2000
If you were taking a break from nightlife antics, then popping to your favourite chippy in them was reason enough to whip on your 110s.
If you were lucky enough to wear your Air Max 95s and avoid having to do the ‘sock walk’, then chances are you were dancing in them at a warehouse gabber rave or bouncing to the best Sound System at Notting Hill’s Carnival.
Equally, you might have been laced up in 110s behind the decks, putting as much thought into what was on your feet as you did that night’s vinyl selection. But if you were taking a break from nightlife antics, then popping to your favourite chippy in them was reason enough to whip on your 110s.
via @batsuskateboardshop
Every Scene Had Its Dress Code
The ‘90s was a busy decade for music, producing genres like Jungle, Britpop and UK Garage. From that bustling 10 years of music came Grime, birthed out of the MC-culture from Garage and Jamaican Sound System culture. As UK music royalty Dizzee Rascal puts it, “Grime is us not being allowed in the garage dance because they thought we were trouble.”
Not only were the instrumentals darker than Garage’s champagne-fuelled grooves, but so were the bars that the MC’s were spitting. As artists from the scene have said before, it was real life reflected in the music, not the other way around. An important distinction that the Political class would frequently get the wrong way around.
Skepta wearing "OG Neon"
As the subculture grew in the early 2000s, a uniform consisting of baggy clothes and Nike Air Max became the accepted dress code. Shaking off the US’ Hip-Hop influences that were around at first, having an Air bubble on your trainers was a sign of status.
via @sportsmafiaboys
Just like the Clarks’ Wallabee and Desert Boot were the footwear to have at Sound System clashes, or how Garage’s ‘no jeans, no trainers’ policy meant Gucci and Patrick Cox Wannabe Loafers were the only shoes worth wearing – the same happened for Grime and the Nike Air Max 95.
via @hotelcreative
A 17-year-old in East London in 2002 didn't grow up in isolation. The people moving the needle in London’s underground scene had grown up seeing OGs in 110s, their older sibling had a pair that they weren't allowed to touch, and the hustlers on the estate were rocking them, so naturally the 110 had a gravitational pull of its own. Years of looking at the Air Bubbles and luminous yellow mini-Swoosh from afar turned the Air Max 95 into a symbol of desire.
Years of looking at the Air Bubbles and luminous yellow mini-Swoosh from afar turned the Air Max 95 into a symbol of desire.
Sporty Spice wearing Air Max 95 "OG Neon"
Grime Didn't Create the Myth. It Broadcast It.
It’s easy to get swept up in thinking Grime gave the Air Max 95 meaning in the UK, but that’s not altogether true. The silhouette had been developing in circles across England, Scotland and Wales ever since it landed in sports shops.
Celebrities got papped in them, with The Spice Girls’ Melanie C wearing the Air Max 95s at Red Carpet events all over the globe, fans eager to see what Sporty Spice had on her feet. Rave scenes were busy scuffing up Air Max 95s at free parties in the West Country, clubs down south and across warehouse raves in the North West of England.
Ian Rush in Nike Air Max 95 "Comet Red"
Footballers were getting in on the Air Max action too, with Liverpool FC legend Ian Rush staying laced in a pair of 110s off the pitch, maybe even influencing the OG Neon-wearing Brazil squad, although I can think of a few people who would contest that.
Skepta wearing OG Neon 110s in Meridian Walk, Tottenham
While Grime embraced the AM95 as its own, it was not the only portion of UK culture to do so. It didn’t create the myth, but it did broadcast it. This was music that talked about London’s number 38 bus service, chicken and chips, barbeque dips, heck even jellied eel eventually got a shoutout. The music was real, something your everyday English person could relate to, regardless of if they lived in the Big Smoke or not. This is what made it Grime so powerful.
The connection created between Grime and its listeners was unlike any other, so while the celebrities were drawn in for its looks, and ravers for its cosy Air units - London MC’s like Skepta, Wiley and Tinchy Stryder would have been drawn to the Air Max 95 for much more than just form and function.
The decision to choose this Air Max in particular was a deliberate one, made up of a thousand collective moments and memories. As soon as the UK cities gave the Air Max 95 the 110 label, the shoe transcended the physical boundaries of rubber and glue.
Hitting the shelves in 1995, the trainer had half a decade to accrue personal memories and earn its cultural cool before its adoption by the Grime scene. As Skepta once said, “My first pair of Air Max were 95s. I remember I was in year 6. When people saw me in my Air Max, they were like, “rah that’s a next crepe”, “that’s a big boy crepe”. I’ll never forget when I got my first pair of Air Max.”
Durrty Goodz wearing Air Max 95 (2009)
Ask another one of Grime’s first stars, Big Narstie, an MC-turned-television star, who spoke on the Air Max 95 saying, “Official Brixton Trainer? There’s a few bruv. 110s, Air Max. Grey and luminous green. The Frank Johnson’s. Any true Brixton man will know about that. Franky Gs. 95s was it.” Not only was the 110 certified in North and East, but it was respected as a heavy trainer South of the river.
As the years rolled by, Grime’s library of Air Max 95 lyrics would only grow. Dizzee Rascal would write, “In my Nike Air bubbles and they cost 110” on Bubbles, as one half of Newham Generals, Footsie, would spit, “And if you’re talking an Air Max, trust me it’s gotta be a 95.” Listing every single mention of the trainer would provide a real challenge, proving that over the decades, Grime has truly given the Air Max 95 a platform of its own.
via @superkicksindia
Britain Gives the Air Max 95 Back to Nike
The Nike Air Max 95 has had a triumphant journey, enjoying a rise in popularity here in the UK these past 5 years. As Nike celebrated the silhouette’s 30th Anniversary in 2025, the 110 has truly been recognised for its connection to these small Isles and it shows.
via @clint419
via @centralcee
One obvious marker of this are the collaborators Nike has worked with, as both Corteiz and Palace Skateboards have helped make the 110 feel uniquely British again. As the two brands are deeply ingrained with the modern UK identity, it was important for them to translate its vision onto Lozano’s iconic design.
Global UK music artist Central Cee also had his turn in designing a 110, releasing a Syna World x Air Max 95.
via @palaceskateboards
Handing out pairs to fellow pillars of UK culture, both Chelsea football star Cole Palmer, and UK rapper Nines, a man who once bragged that “my room’s got more kicks than Tekken 5”, got a pair from Cee himself.
The Block P x Lorenz.OG x Nike 110 Liverpool drop
If we’re talking music though, we simply have to mention Kasst, a Liverpudlian drill artist who featured alongside Louise Theroux in one of the most iconic Nike campaigns since Nothing Beats a Londoner (2018). That JD campaign for 2026’s “OG Neon” retro captured the reach that the Air Max 95 still has within the UK. An artist from Toxteth next to a documentary maker wearing the same shoe? It could only ever have been the Air Max 95.
via JD
From Toxteth, head to Renshaw street in Central Liverpool and you’ll find The Block P, a shop that only sells 110s. A shop that represents that silhouette so purely that the owners Charlier and Sam got the go-ahead from Nike to drop a triple collaboration with the UK’s king of colour schemes, Lorenz.OG.
Birmingham FC x Nike Air Max 95 launch via @sneakerdenn
They only dropped 110 pairs and sold them for £110. People were literally running through the streets. That’s how much scousers love the 110, so don’t go calling them 'Air Max 95s' when you’re up by the Mersey.
If we’re talking UK cities though, we have to acknowledge the Birmingham F.C x UNDFT Air Max 95 edition. Check the comment sections on socials and you will find people complaining about why their city didn’t get a pair, Bristol, Wolverhampton, Glasgow, you name it.
Go anywhere in the UK and you will find a crowd of people representing the Air Max 95, telling you exactly why their spot on the map deserves its own edition.
Brimingham 110 Launch via @sneakerdenn
An artist from Toxteth next to a documentary maker both wearing the same shoe? It could only ever have been the Air Max 95.
The Nike Air Max 95 has endured because it was never owned by one scene. It moved between runners, raves, celebrities, festivals and Grime, with each generation adding another chapter to its story. The Air Max 95 was never defined by one British subculture. It never belonged to anyone, each generation inherited it, reinterpreted it and passed it on.
Now that more people are buying the Air Max 95 than ever, we can rest assured knowing that the generation of kids who have just got their first pair, are creating the next wave of stories to tell.
via @palaceskateboards
via @davidsesay_
via @stormmccormickk
via @yabirdwears110s
via @natwinter_
via JD
via @centralcee
via @jdsports
via @baggys.tv
The Air Max 95 was never defined by one British subculture. It never belonged to anyone, each generation inherited it, reinterpreted it and passed it on.
