The New Silhouette Everyone Is Talking About

By PUSHAS Staff 14 June 2018 1 minute readUpdated June 2022

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Despite being spotted at Paris Fashion Wee earlier this year, Nike presents its latest silhouette, the React Element 87.

Designed in collaboration with Jun Takahashi’s UNDERCOVER, the shoe features a futuristic and stealthy look with the upper comprising of a semi-translucent TPE material (seen in the Zoom Fly SP) with exposed pieces that add to the deconstructed look.

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In the model’s official unveil, Nike states a drill experiment lead them to place holes throughout the sole with hopes of achieving superior comfort while standing, walking, shifting, and the occasional sprint. Through trial and error, designers discovered which hole depths and densities accomplished their comfort goals.

“At first, the whole process was one of those back-to-basics type of things,” explains the Footwear Design Lead for NSW Innovation Darryl Matthews. “But then we took what we’d learned and applied it through computational design scripts. That’s when things really started clicking.”

"The results presented a new articulation of Nike’s React technology while an out-the-box interpretation of a friendly runner from the past yielded an avant garde new upper... essentially enhancing underfoot comfort for the variety of discrete movements that people do during daily life"

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Whilst taking inspiration from the Nike Internationalist from 1981 (which you can spot on the eyelets and exterior heel clip), the shoe also borrows features from the Nike Epic React - most notably with the full REACT Foam.

Given its deconstructed look that draws inspirations from the likes of Virgil Abloh and Alexander Wang and with claims that REACT Foam is more comfortable than Boost technology, we believe these are a must have.

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