Nike Huarache E.D.G.E. TXT 'Indigo Force'
Colorway: Indigo Force/Aurora Green · Style code: BQ5205-400 · Release date: November 29, 2018 · Price: $57 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Nike Huarache E.D.G.E. TXT 'Black' (AO1697-004) · Nike Huarache E.D.G.E. TXT (AO1697-003) · Nike Air Huarache Edge TXT 'Magenta Yellow' (BQ5206-500) · Nike Huarache E.D.G.E. TXT 'Anthracite' (CI9870-001) · Nike Wmns Air Huarache Run TXT 'Light Bone' (818597-001)
The Huarache is named after a sandal you can still buy in a Mexican market. Huaraches are pre-Columbian in origin, woven from leather straps and often soled with cut-up tires; the word comes from the Purepecha kwarachi, which simply means sandal. Tinker Hatfield borrowed the principle rather than the look - a foot held in place by straps instead of enclosed by a shoe - and built Nike's Air Huarache around a neoprene inner sleeve, with an external heel counter and forefoot cage doing the structural work. It arrived in 1991, and its sock-like fit fed directly into later designs, including the Air Max 93.
E.D.G.E. is Nike's shorthand for a redrawn version of that exoskeleton, and the TXT builds swap part of the original neoprene for stretch mesh so the upper moves more air. This indigo pair was one of two colorways that opened the model in late 2018. The cage is the loudest element on it, tracing a shape that has stayed recognizable for three decades without ever settling into a single silhouette.