As the year of the 20th anniversary of the Nike TN draws to a close we have seen the 20th  anniversary re-release of the literally ground breaking, neck snapping Hyperblues, the Tigers and the love or hate it ‘Greedy’. Yesterday saw the release of the never before seen purple colourway only ever seen in sketch form when TN designer Sean McDowell was conceptualising the shoe.

Shortly after and upon arrival to Nike in 1997, McDowell immediately took on the challenge of creating a new running shoe (and thus completing a nascent project for Foot Locker) that used a new Max Air innovation that implemented two opposing hemispheres to evolve the cushioning technology. Its working name was Sky Air, and more than 15 potential shoe sketches had been presented to the retailer. None had received the nod yet.

“As soon as I heard ‘sky,’ I was like, ‘Oh my god, I just saw this amazing sky in Florida,’” says McDowell, who resumed his sketching. “I did a sunset. I did a blue one. I did a purple one. I tried a couple of different colors and sky versions, some palm trees were a little more tech-y and very geometric, and others were waving.” 

Lucky to get our hands on an early pair after attending the TN Cite in Paris a few days back we are completely in Tuned Love with the Purples and urge any serious TN fan to make sure you get these for the collection. It’s been a crazy year for the TN and taking an OG from paper to production is a fitting end.

Check out the pics below and… don’t sleep!

Imagery SK, Sean McDowell quotes courtesy of Nike