Nike Air Max 720 'Bubble Pack'
Colorway: Dark Smoke Grey/Black · Style code: CT5229-001 · Release date: March 19, 2020 · Price: $405 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike Air Max 720 'Bubble Pack' (CT5229-100) · Nike Air Max 720 (AO2924-404) · Nike Air Max 720 (AO2924-014) · Nike Air Max 720 'Oreo' (CJ0585-003) · Nike Air Max 720 'Gradient' (CI3870-100)
Nike's stated reason for the Air Max 720 was volume: the unit measures 38mm at its highest point and was only the second Air platform the company designed for lifestyle wear rather than for a sport. It went on sale in 2019 with almost nothing above the sole to distract from it.
The Bubble Pack came out of a Sportswear collection built on a comparison that had been sitting there for thirty years: that a sheet of bubble wrap and a Max Air unit are the same object at different scales. The collection made it explicit. On this pair, discrete panels are picked out in iridescent film so they catch light the way packing plastic does, while the rest of the upper is black textile embossed with molded lines radiating outward from those panels.
The build is seamless, which keeps the eye on the sole, and the Air unit runs the full length of the shoe beneath a rubber outsole. It released in March 2020 at $180.