crooked tongues magazine News Features

We've bored you with tales of our Nike Air Safari love here before and you don't want to hear that all over again, do you? There's two things about the shoe that we're particularly keen on — the bizarre OG colourway that you can see from several hundred metres away and that soft foam midsole that makes them look and feel like luxury Windrunners (which was kind of the intent of the shoe). Take those elements away and you're in the danger zone. We didn't mind the couple of colourways that coincided with the relaunch of the shoe in 2003/4 or the Mowabb editions union of two connoisseur favourites, but the Tech Pack ones a few years ago were just nasty and it's a no comment on VNTG and Lunar editions. So when you rework this shoe, you're playing with fire.

The Olympic festivities kicking off means we're being spoiled for strong releases (we don't think the Hyperfuse AM90 launch is a coincidence) like the FlyKnits in every colour possible and the DSM AF1s, but it's fun to see Nike Sportswear homage Great Britain — a nation that obsessed over the Safari back in the day — with two SMUs of this shoe. Part of a duo, these burgundy leather versions don't take too many risks and what they lack in tan strangeness they make up for by amplifying the Safari print in both the laces and a transluscent section of the outsole (a really nice touch), in a particularly buttery leather and finished with embossed footbeds. These don't come close to the perfection of the Safari in its original form, but as far as additions to the stack go, they're very worthy indeed, with a certain refined air of GB luxury that doesn't go too OTT with the anglophile leanings.

Both makeups are on sale now in the Crooked Tongues store, just in time for the start of the games and they're one of the better additions to the shoe's 25th anniversary celebrations.