On the tarmac of history, before sneaker drops and Instagram teasers, there was Air Afrique. For decades, the airline connected West African nations to Paris, Dakar, New York, not just moving passengers, but carrying dreams, pride, and the promise of independence across the skies.
Today, Nike and Paris-based collective Air Afrique bring that story back to life with the Air Max RK61, a silhouette where heritage meets design, and where the notion of flight is both literal and symbolic.
This is more than a collaboration. It’s a cultural bridge spanning generations, continents, and memories.
THE ELEGANCE OF MOVEMENT
The RK61 is named after the airline’s flight code, RK, and its founding year, 1961, a time when African independence was still fresh, the future still unwritten.
Nike’s designers and the Air Afrique collective leaned into this history with intention. The jet engine-inspired Air Max unit speaks to aviation’s modernity. The morse code “Air Afrique” outsole nods to communication across borders. The jacquard sock liner borrows textures from vintage aircraft seating, and the zipper pull features the original airline logo, details that make the shoe feel like a passport stamped with memory.
“Air is about movement,” says Ahmadou-Bamba Thiam, a member of the Air Afrique collective. “But it’s also about elevation, cultural elevation. What Air Afrique represented to Africa in the 1960s wasn’t just travel. It was dignity, connection, and possibility.”
THE CAMPAIGN: ICONS BOARDING THE FLIGHT
The launch campaign, Première Classe, doesn’t simply sell a sneaker. It tells a story of diaspora pride through the faces of its icons: Didier Drogba, the football legend; Oumou Sangaré, Mali’s voice of resilience; Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith, the sprinter who carries speed in her DNA; and Mme Daba Traoré, a former Air Afrique employee who once greeted real passengers in real terminals decades ago.
Their presence anchors the campaign in something authentic: history meeting the present, legacy handing the baton to the future.
AIR AFRIQUE: FROM AIRLINE TO CULTURAL MOVEMENT
Founded in 2021 by Lamine Diaoune, Djiby Kebe, Jeremy Konko, and Ahmadou-Bamba Thiam, the Air Afrique collective has transformed the airline’s memory into a multidisciplinary platform spanning art, cinema, photography, and literature.
Their partnership with Nike isn’t random. It continues a legacy, one that began with last year’s Air Afrique Football Club campaign and now elevates it through fashion, music, and sport.
“We wanted to design something that didn’t just look back,” says Jupiter Desphy, lead designer for the RK61. “It had to feel alive today, like heritage moving forward.”
A GLOBAL RELEASE
The Nike x Air Afrique Air Max RK61 drops October 9 on SNKRS and at select global retailers.
For some, it will be a collector’s item. For others, a statement piece. But for those who know the airline’s legacy, or who grew up hearing stories of its routes connecting Bamako, Abidjan, Dakar, and Paris, it will feel like something deeper: a reunion between history and modernity, a chance to walk in the echoes of flight paths long past.
This isn’t just a shoe launch. It’s a cultural elevation, one that started on African runways and now takes off again, this time in leather, stitching, and Air Max cushioning.
