When thinking about what we should do for our next sneaker concept, we decided to come back to a personal favorite of ours, the Air Max 90. Released in 1990, as its name suggests, the silhouette is extremely versatile and its often brightly painted TPU accents are great for expressing pops of unconventional color and style. Today, we will be utilizing this silhouette to make a rose-inspired colorway. Check out how it went above and read more about our thought process below. 

Our concept comes in a very dark grey leather upper, with black mesh on the toe box and around the ankle. Black accents are also present on the TPU eyelets and on the Nike branding on the tongue, which is placed on a red tag. There is further red detailing on the Air Max branding below the ankle, and then the rose pattern that takes center stage on our sneaker is present on the Nike Swoosh and the TPU panel around the Air Max bubble. Lastly, the sole is otherwise coated in a dark grey to match the upper. 

Although a regular source of inspiration for sneakers, a rose decal is often left off shoes in favor of just using a “rose” shade of red. That being said, the Adidas D Rose 11 Brenda featured beautiful rose-themed detailing on the underside of its midsole, which was visible through its transluscent outsole. Having taken such a liking to that shoe and wanting to incorporate a similar rose pattern onto one of our own concepts, we decided to take the Air Max 90 and give it a similar treatment. Particularly, the use of a dark black for the rest of the shoe highlights the rose pattern and makes it stand out as the primary feature of the shoe, even if it is only present on a small area of the model. Doing so also draws your eyes to the Nike swoosh and the Air Max bubble, two key details of the shoe that make it quickly clear what model you are wearing. 

For our rose pattern, we chose a busy design featuring a bunch of roses, in a very vibrant red color which contrasted with a very dark background. In doing so, the boundaries of where the design meets the rest of the otherwise dark sneaker are not as clearly defined, giving the shoe an overall cleaner look.