If you are a streetwear brand collaborating with Nike for the first time, you have to put everything on the line. The Swoosh offers a bigger stage than any other brand in the space – and they’re not just giving everyone who owns a decent logo t-shirt a collaborative color. Those invited to work with the brand should aim to make a strong impression, much like the one in Los Angeles. Children of immigrants made with his first Nikes. Their big swing connected and the result is one of the best sneakers of 2024.

The brand, founded by Daniel Buezo and Weleh Dennis in 2016, has spent the last decade carving out a unique place in the world of streetwear. Their sons pay homage to the ethos of their namesake: first-generation children, their parents, and the communities they forged. T-shirts and hoodies emblazoned with heartfelt slogans such as “Support Your Friends” and “We Are Our Parents’ Wildest Dreams” stood out alongside increasingly detached and sardonic branding of their peers. The scene came to consciousness. The Swoosh too.

Impressed by this vision, Nike invited KOI to put their spin on a colorway of the Air Max Sunder, an archive-drunk sneaker that first released in 1999. The shoe never really took off at the time. era, but Nike has relaunched it in 2022 with a colorway from essential collaborators Comme des Garçons. As the shoe slowly found its way back to the shelves general version colorsKOI is now uniquely positioned to elevate it to a new level of popularity with its approach to offbeat kicks.