Nike Air Flightposite One 'Legion Green'
Colorway: Legion Green/Black-Black · Style code: AO9378-300 · Release date: June 21, 2018 · Price: $220 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike Air Flightposite 'Topaz Mist' (AO9378-001) · Nike Air Flightposite One 'Knicks' (AO9378-401) · Nike Air Flightposite One 'Dark Neon Royal' (AO9378-500) · Nike Air Flightposite One 'China Hoop Dreams' (CJ8010-990) · Nike Air Flightposite One 'Chinese New Year' (BV6648-605)
Nike's Alpha Project was a late-1990s programme for performance shoes that were allowed to look strange, and the Flightposite is the clearest example of what it produced. Eric Avar took the moulded shell he had developed for the Foamposite One, thinned it and drew it tighter to the foot, then covered the lacing entirely with a stretch shroud closed by a zip. Avar has described this zip as more industrial than the one Nike had already used on Gary Payton’s signature shoe.
The shell is made the same way as its predecessor: liquid polyurethane poured into a mould and set under heat and pressure, producing a one-piece upper with no stitched panels. Avar worked from anatomical drawings, and the lines across the shell follow that reference rather than any conventional shoe pattern.
This pair is the 2018 retro, finished in Legion Green with an iridescent coat that shifts across the shell as it catches light, over a black inner bootie and outsole. The zip is still functional, so the shroud can be worn open with the laces showing.