Nike Air Macropus Lite Qs

The Macropus has a special place in our hearts as a curious Tier Zero product in a more heavyweight HTM mid-cut version that confused a few heads on its debut, with that sloping sole unit and moc-toe. Best of all, the Macropus name references the marsupial genus that includes several wallaby species for a clever Clarks Wallabee reference. It was a shock-to-the-system to see Nike go casual in such a clean way, and the price tag was intimidating, making it a tough sell. Now who's not merrily moccasin-toeing their way through their lookbooks? The Macropus benefits from looking genuinely strange. Wallys are a safe bet, but with that broad forefoot almost replicating the vast plates of meat on the leaping animal namesake, the Macropus harks back to a time when Nike were dropping oddball pieces like this and the Sock Dart. It's a sign of the times that this season, with a low-cut silhouette and even more avant-garde (normally a Tier Zero touch) in its makeups, seems to be Quick Strike instead. We thought we weren't getting the peculiar 'Mexican Blanket' take - the sort of thing that's been known to catch us off-guard on an Asia-only tip during peeks into mita stores, but here it is. Shades of Joseph's legendarily garish dreamcoat, and a purple that reminds us of the brightly coloured fake market Wallabee boom of 1990, maybe with a touch of Wu and one of Rae's Coogi looking sweaters, it's safe to say it's not to all tastes, but in an oddball way, it looks less jarring than the 2005 P-Rod carrying a similar theme. We never thought 2010 would be the year the Macropus would be on the comeback trail, but we're not mad at the decision either. Hopefully we'll see more similarly bizarro resurrections throughout the year.