Behind the Design - Sketch Study

No sneaker is more connected to Moscow and its subcultures than the Air Max 90. In the mid ’00s, the shoe became the sneaker of choice for graffiti writers, football fans and rappers. And the AM90 was always the most famous icon of the Air Max line-up.

The inspiration behind the Air Max 90 ‘Moscow’ was to tell the story of modern Moscow through colour. We hooked up with the city’s community to discover that the colour grey best represented present-day Moscow. It’s everywhere in the city — from the architecture to the weather.

But grey isn’t the only shade of Moscow. After dark, pops of colour are everywhere in the city’s nightlife — and none more so than red and blue. From flashes of car lights to underground signage to modern trains, red dominates the city’s colour palette. And blue shows up just as much in neon billboards, the cold light of public transport and building lights.

Maybe the Air Max 90 ‘Moscow’ was meant to be, because the dominant colours of Moscow — grey, red and blue — are so close to the AM90’s iconic OG colourways: Smoke Grey, Infrared and Laser Blue.

Moscow’s also a city known for its fast-paced life, represented by the Russian words for ‘city’ and ‘speed’ on the shoe’s mudguards.

And to wrap up an edition that was made for Moscow, we reconstructed the AM90’s vamp, tongue and collar with reflective materials in the mesh to make the shoe shine bright during longer nights.