Nike Air Huarache Crater Premium, $135, available here.
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This is going to sound very vain, so please bear with me for a dramatized and highly consumeristic statement: Outside of family and close friends, my longest relationships tend to be with my shoes.
Shoes balance style and function. Shoes keep our feet safe from scorching summer sidewalks or frigid, ice-glazed streets. Shoes can help keep our joints healthy as we traverse unexpected terrain; the highest heels can be hellaciously uncomfortable, but accent the hip in our walks. However a shoe influences our movement, its style can say a lot about the wearer.
For me, there’s no shoe I love as much as sneakers. And of sneakers, there are none that I have re-purchased as much as Nike’s Air Huarache.
I can’t remember when my love affair with sneakers began, since I’ve been wearing them my whole life. In Chicago, where I grew up, sneakers are woven into a beautiful, creative and thriving cultural locus. Long before luxury fashion gave the comfortable and stylish shoe the time of day, sneaker culture had a long and rich history, with roots in basketball, hip hop and graffiti. The Nike Air Huarache is a beautiful continuation of this history and excellent design.
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I first fell in love with Huaraches in 2018, when I bought a pair in the wheat colorway and struck gold. I wore those shoes until they wore out. They went with every outfit and kept me comfortable through my oddly routine, several-mile-long walks. When my soles almost wore bare and the shoes fell apart, I had to come to terms with the fact that my most trusted shoe was done for. I was tempted to try another model ofr sneaker — especially with the explosion of options lately — but I ended up running back to Nike.
As far as sneakers go, the Huarache seems to be my one true love.
It’s ridiculously comfortable, thanks to the Nike Air cushioning. Its structure and soft materials are made to hug your foot, like a glove would your hand. The pull tab on the back helps you get away with sliding these on without touching the laces. Aesthetically, it’s a chunky shoe that still manages a sculpted and balanced look. (Keep in mind, they tend to run half a size small.)
Based on my internet scouring, Nike hasn’t dropped the wheat colorway I originally fell in love with since I purchased it years ago. Iinstead, I opted for the latest version, which is a mix of tan and olive green with speckled soles, made with partly recycled materials. (It also comes in black-white, off-white and blue-green colorways.) Just like the first pair, I’m going to wear these until the soles thin out to nothing.
Nike’s Air Force 1’s are one of the most classic and timeless sneakers for good reason — Nelly made a song about them in the early 2000s, artists like Jay-Z and Young Jeezy kept them in the conversation, towering designers like Virgil Abloh reimagined them, collaborations with brands like Supreme kept their popularity high — and while I’m not against them, it does seem like everybody is wearing them now. So, if you’re hungry for a pair of kicks that’ll make you feel fly without matching every other person passing by, give Air Huaraches a try.
Nike Air Huarache Crater Premium, $135, available here.
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