OG sneakerheads know how much a black tongue and retro colourway combination means to an Air Max 95 enthusiasts. There is one shoe that is commonly held up as a grail for many fans of the 110 - the mita x Air Max 95 “Ueno Prototype”. The mita 110 pays homage to a sample pair of “OG Neon” that appeared in Boon Magazine, a hugely important sneaker magazine in Japan.

For those in the know, that sample pair was actually based off of Sergio Lozano’s original concept sketches. While we know Lozano fought tooth and nail to keep the black midsole on the launch of the original Air Max 95, the black tongue clearly fell by the wayside - perhaps a tad too much black for the Nike execs at Beaverton.

Japan had built up a huge connection towards the “OG Neon” over the preceding decades, with a sample pair of black-tongued “Neon” 110s slipping through the cracks. Likely a pair that CO.JP division had cooked up in the mid 2000s, and one that didn’t make it past Nike legal. That sample was then destined to remain stored away within the design archives of Nike Japan - well, until it popped up within the pages of BOON Magazine (Boon Extra Vol. 5: Nike Air Max Complete Guide).

Owner of mita sneakers, Shigeyuki Kunii, then got the go-ahead to release a limited run of the Prototype in 2013, with numbers rumoured to be between 300 - 950 pairs.

Given that mita’s version of the black tongue “OG Neon” was exclusive to the Japanese retailer, it’s worth asking if the Air Max 95 Black Tongue Pack will also be an Asia exclusive? While we cannot confirm or deny anything at this time, there are rumours circulating on the Black Tongue Pack being split regionally. This makes sense given the similarities between this capsule and the UNDEAFEATED Air Max 95 pack that dropped in 2025.

Given that 3 of the colours, red, blue and yellow were used in both collections, with the upcoming Black Tongue pack foregoing the neon edition for obvious reasons, the case only gets stronger. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Shanghai, Tokyo and Birmingham will be the selected cities this time around. One can only hope that Liverpool gets designated the “Red” edition.

Part of me still believes that we will get a retro of the mita x Nike Air Max 95 further down the line. Considering that Europe and the US rarely get an early look at Japan-only releases, it would come out of the blue. Although keeping a tight-lid on such a retro is never easy. If we take the recent atmos Harajuku Air Max 95 as a case study, the shoe was only leaked by Hirofumi Kojima a few weeks prior to the launch.

So, if you see Nike announce a retro of the mita 110 around Air Max Day 2027, just know you heard it here first.