The Nike Air Kukini is the brainchild of the Nike Alpha Project, an experimental design branch of Nike in the late 90s to early 2000s that delivered cult-classic Nike Basketball sneakers like the Nike Flightposite and Hyperflight, as well as modern Nike Sportswear staples like the Air Presto. The spirit of the Nike Alpha Project was to create innovative and technical solutions for the modern athlete, and the Air Kukini executed that vision flawlessly. A slip-on sneaker that was designed and tested for an Iron Man Triathlete, the Air Kukini will finally get its due with a proper retro this year.
The “Lemon Venom Aurora Green” Nike Air Kukini features an elastic foot web in lieu of traditional shoelaces. The clear web wraps around the entire top of the foot, extending out from the bottom of the midsole, and wrapping around the back heel of the sneaker as well. A gradient upper features bright yellow at the toe which transitions to green and then blue as you move to the back of the shoe.
In addition, the tongue pull tab, toecap, heel counter, and heel pull tab feature black leather. Lemon Venom Nike Swooshes can be seen inside the diamond-shaped window created by the tongue pull tab and on the underside of the glossy black torsion plate. The Max Air unit features the same vibrant lemon venom color. No Nike Alpha Project retro is complete without the five-dot logo, and here it’s embossed into the black leather heel counter on the upper.
The Nike Air Kukini Lemon Venom Aurora Green was originally set to release in June 2022. After a delay, they will now release on September 28th. It will drop at Nike as well as select Nike retailers worldwide, in-store and online at a retail price of $140. Keep it locked to our Twitter andMobile App to stay up to date on future releases.
Nike Air Kukini SE "Lemon Venom Aurora Green"
Images via Nike
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Jonathan Paek is a writer on sneaker releases and news for Sole Retriever. Catch Jonathan's latest articles here!
