Black, red, and yellow panels stacked together with flame-like lines running across the shoe — the 1997 Nike Air Bakin, a signature shoe belonging to NBA guard Tim Hardaway, wore the "the bolder, the better" design logic of '90s basketball sneakers right on its sleeve. This shoe never built its reputation through endorsement campaigns; instead, it earned its status as a cult classic among sneakerheads purely through on-court moments and the sheer visual impact of the shoe itself.
Nearly three decades later, the Nike Air Bakin SP "OG" is confirmed to drop via Nike.com and select retailers on September 29, 2026, priced at $170. This release brings back the original colorway — Varsity Red/White/Varsity Maize/Black — under style number IQ5365-600. Compared to the shoe that made Hardaway stand out on the court back in the day, this retro sticks strictly to the original, with no attempt at reworking or updating the colorway.
For collectors well-versed in '90s basketball sneaker history, the Air Bakin's value was never about tech specs — it's about how far Nike Basketball was willing to push colorways and linework back then. No word yet on additional colorways or collab versions tied to this retro; for now, all that's confirmed is this OG colorway and the September release date.
