Nike is paying homage to the great city of Glasgow, celebrating its late-night folklore and love of electronic music with its very own pair of TNs.
Proudly standing as the UK’s first UNESCO City of Music, and only the third in the world, for that matter, it’s Glasgow’s affinity with sound, specifically rave culture, that has fed into the design.
The other cultural touchpoint comes from a slightly more unlikely, but no less brilliant source: the infamous traffic cones that are perched upon the head of the Duke of Wellington Statue outside Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art.
For decades, students, artists and revellers have been crowning the landmark with cones, and any attempts by the council to remove them have all but instantly been met with replacements. Banksy even dubbed the trend his ‘favourite work of art in the UK’, and the reason he chose Glasgow as the location for his first solo exhibition in 14 years.
Nike's Black/Safety Orange colourway honours both the traffic cone and the enticing late-night glow of the city’s lively clubs and dancefloors. The shoe features a variety of Glaswegian references throughout, including ‘Glasgow’ embroidery on the centre tongues and an Air-stamped orange cone stitched onto the reverse side.
The right tongue features additional cone artwork in place of the usual Nike Air branding, and the ‘Made Wae It’ typography, which features on the heel’s Air unit, is a lovely final nod to the city.
We’re still awaiting an official release date for the Nike Air Max Plus ‘Glasgow’, but expect it to be available exclusively through Nike.com and potentially select stockists.
