Air Max 720 "OG"

The Air Max 720 arrived in 2019 as Nike’s answer to how far the visible Air unit concept could be pushed. The 38mm air bubble that wraps the entire perimeter of the midsole was, at the time of release, the largest Air unit Nike had ever put into production, surpassing the heel-only chambers that defined earlier Air Max silhouettes and even the full-length units seen in models like the 360.

The OG colorway served as the introductory release, the version meant to establish the silhouette before collaborations and seasonal palettes expanded the lineup. Because it carried the launch, the design choices made here set the visual language for the entire 720 era. The oversized air unit is the dominant element by design, the midsole rising so high that the upper almost reads as secondary. The construction leans into that priority, with the mesh and synthetic overlays working around the bubble rather than competing with it.

Where earlier Air Max models used visible Air as a supporting feature, the 720 inverts that logic entirely. The unit is the shoe. The exaggerated height changes the proportions compared to anything in the Air Max lineage before it, giving the silhouette a chunky, forward-leaning stance that fit naturally into the maximalist footwear moment happening across the industry in 2019.

The OG remains the baseline reference point for the model, the version collectors and archivists return to when tracing how the 720 was originally positioned. Its significance is less about a specific colorway story and more about what it represents structurally, a silhouette built entirely around the limits of Air cushioning technology at that point in Nike’s development.