Air Penny II "Sole Collector 5th Anniversary"

The Air Penny II debuted in 1995 as the second signature shoe for Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway, building on the success of the original with a bulkier silhouette, a full-length Air unit, and the small Penny puppet figure molded into the tongue. By 2009, retroing the model was still relatively uncommon, which made special releases on the shape feel distinct rather than routine.

This particular pair came as part of a collaboration with Sole Collector, the print magazine and online community that had become one of the more authoritative voices in sneaker documentation and culture during the 2000s. The release marked Sole Collector’s fifth anniversary and represented a meaningful moment for enthusiast-driven media receiving an official Nike collaboration rather than simply covering one.

The colorway leans on grey and neon, a palette that references the aesthetic of early 1990s basketball, the era that produced the original Air Penny line. That period was defined by loud accent colors against neutral bases, and this version channels that sensibility without directly replicating any existing Penny colorway. The combination is applied to the Air Penny II’s specific construction, with its overlapping synthetic panels, the lace toggle, and the structured heel counter, all of which give the neon more surface contrast to work against than the lower-profile original would have.

What the colorway accomplishes is a recontextualization rather than a straight retro. Instead of revisiting a player-worn color scheme, Nike and Sole Collector mapped a period-appropriate feeling onto the silhouette without tying it to a specific game or moment, making the anniversary framing do real work in how the shoe reads.