crooked tongues magazine News Features

The Nike Air Solstice is a curious shoe. It's not a bad shoe at all but it always makes us squint. We've been squinting at it since it first appeared as an NSW release a few months back. It's not unusual to see Nike making the most of some tooling or a last — every sportswear brand has been doing that since we were kids, but this one's always been different, because there was something about it that we recognised. Then it clicked — the Nike Air Solstice is an updated Nike Air Internationalist. That in itself is a pretty odd move, but it actually looks good. Of course, we'd love to see a more widespread release for the Internationalist than the women's retro we saw very recently and get our hands on the excellent blue and yellow makeup we lusted after back in the day, even after flare gun stashing nerd Brian in 'The Breakfast Club' sported a pair that legendary Saturday morning. At fear of sounding like old codgers, 1983 was an awesome year for shoes and we'd commit a violent act to get hold of a US-made pair of the originals. While we wait for out moment to strike, the Air Solstice will tide us over — that light, concave midsole and altered rear with extra reflection, plus plenty of ripstop nylon on the upper all works. We don't know how it came to pass that the Internationalist got a remix, but it's agreeably low-key and not some nasty hybrid. These arrive in the Crooked Tongues store very soon.