In a world where design too often forgets its roots, Nike and Air Afrique, a Paris-based creative collective, have come together to create something that feels like both an artifact and a vision of the future. Their new collaboration, the Air Max RK61, transcends footwear. It is a meditation on heritage, movement, and the enduring poetry of flight. The project is the brainchild of creative director Margot Purgues.
The RK61 takes its name from the flight code and founding year of the original Air Afrique airline, which once connected West African nations to the wider world. Like the airline, the shoe becomes a vessel of connection, between continents, generations, and aesthetics. It bridges the tactile intimacy of craft with the ingenuity of Nike’s design language, evoking shared memories of travel and belonging.
At first glance, the silhouette fuses the structured elegance of a dress shoe with the attitude and comfort of the Air Max family. Its lines recall both the classic Air Max SNDR and the quiet sophistication of the moccasin. Every detail is an homage, an Air unit shaped like a jet engine, Morse code spelling “Air Afrique” along the outsole, a zipper pull engraved with the airline’s insignia, and a jacquard sock liner inspired by vintage aircraft upholstery. It is a design that remembers where it came from, and dares to ascend higher.
“The notion of Air is deeply connected to our history,” says Ahmadou-Bamba Thiam, editor of Air Afrique Magazine. “The airline itself took to the skies to transcend cultures and connect newly independent African nations. For us, Air also represents a kind of symbolic elevation, through culture, through humanity. That became the soul of the RK61.”
The rebirth of Air Afrique as a creative collective extends that spirit of transcendence. Founded by Lamine Diaoune, Djiby Kebe, Jeremy Konko, and Ahmadou-Bamba Thiam, the group has evolved the airline’s legacy into a multidisciplinary platform devoted to Afro-diasporic storytelling, a cultural bridge built through photography, film, fashion, and design. Their work is as much about reclaiming archives as it is about creating new ones
For Nike, the collaboration is an act of alignment, two forces grounded in innovation, community, and the idea that design can move culture forward. Jupiter Desphy, the silhouette’s lead designer, describes it as “a shoe that articulates movement, emotion, and access,” adding, “Air Afrique represented the possibility of travel, of seeing, learning, and belonging. We wanted to honor that era of mobility through a design that carries its emotional resonance into the present.”
The Première Classe campaign, which launches the RK61, visualizes that idea of elegant elevation. Styled like an archival boarding call, it celebrates Afro-diasporic excellence through a cast that bridges sport, art, and history, Didier Drogba, Oumou Sangaré, Marie Josée Ta Lou-Smith, and Mme Daba Traoré, a former employee of the original airline. Each figure embodies a different dimension of heritage and aspiration, reminding us that legacy is not something we inherit, it is something we build in motion.
“We are deliberate about who we work with,” Thiam says, “Nike has always represented intention and global resonance. That is what connects us, the belief that design should carry meaning, that every detail should move with purpose.”
The Air Max RK61 is more than a collaboration, it is a cultural statement. It honors a lineage of innovation while pointing to a future where African narratives are central to global design conversations. It reminds us that flight is not only about altitude, it is about perspective.