Air Max 95 "Slate"

The Slate is one of the four original Air Max 95 colorways from 1995, released alongside the Neon, the Grape and the Comet Red as the model introduced the world to its layered, anatomy-inspired design. Where the Neon became the futuristic icon, the Slate took a more composed route, a clean blue suede gradient running across the upper with an emerald green Air unit visible in the sole. It is the elegant, understated member of the founding group, a colorway that has aged into one of the most respected makeups in the line.

The Air Max 95 was a turning point for Nike, the model that moved the visible Air conversation forward with a full-length unit and a radical design inspired by the human body, the gradient meant to evoke layers of muscle and the materials chosen to hide dirt the way a trail runner would. The Slate carries all of that with a calm the louder colorways do not. It has been reissued only a handful of times across the model’s anniversaries, which has kept it special. For an archive the Slate is a foundational Air Max 95 entry, one of the original four and arguably the most quietly beautiful of them, a piece of the release that pushed visible Air into its boldest era.