The Nike Air Max 97 “Athletic Club” Goes Retro Heavy With Orange And Yellow

The mission of Nike’s upcoming Athletic Club collection is to bring back some retro attitude to its icons, reminding today’s sneakerheads of the brand’s decades-old roots in sportswear. While the 97 is, quite obviously, from 1997, the entirety of the Athletic Club seems to hone in on typefont and color choices of Nike’s first decade in business, and omething about this sunburst orange and yellow screams the 1970s – possibly since we associate it with the various Roswell Rayguns releases.

This upcoming Air Max 97 sees a classic suede construction, layering hot oranges with lighter shades and a blazing yellow, while a clean white covers the midsole, tongue, and the uppermost tracks of the 97 upper. The insoles features the Athletic Club typography, while hits of a retro blue tone arrives on the tongue and outsole. There’s a good chance we’ll see these in other Athletic Club inclusions such as the Air Force 1 and Blazer Mid ’77, but we can’t to see what else is part of this large collection that may span several seasons.

In other Air Max 97, Nike will bring back the Air Max 97 “Silver Bullet” as part of the model’s 25th Anniversary.