There’s a new Air Force 1 most weeks. I stopped counting somewhere around the point where counting stopped meaning anything, and usually I let them pass without comment. This “Dark Team Red” ’01 is the one I’ll make an exception for, not because it changes anything, but because it so deliberately doesn’t.
Bordeaux on the older last
What you’re looking at is an AF1 in a deep team red that reads more bordeaux than bright, with a white Swoosh, a white midsole and a matching dark red outsole underneath. It’s the ’01 build, with that slightly chunkier shape that sits closer to the early-2000s original than the current standard. Premium leather, clean stitching, and nothing else. No print, no narrative, no collab.
And that’s the whole point. As so often with the Air Force 1, the question was never whether the shoe is any good, it is; a good bordeaux leather AF1 stays a good bordeaux leather AF1, but whether you still needed the latest colourway of it. Nike knows a deep autumn tone on this silhouette always sells, so here it is. Let’s not pretend the wheel has been reinvented.
I’d be lying, though, if I said it left me cold. The colour is rich, the retro last is right, and a bordeaux AF1 slots under more winter coats than you’d expect. It dropped in late October, so anyone who wants a pair isn’t waiting on anything.
£105 at Slam Jam, €206 at Stadium Goods
This is where Solezilla earns its keep, because what you pay depends entirely on where you look. In euros we’re tracking ten active listings, from €133.49 at Footshop up to €205.95 at Stadium Goods. The honest middle is tight: asphaltgold, BSTN, noirfonce, Solebox, Slam Jam and Maha Amsterdam all sit at €139–€140, and that cluster is the real price. Stadium Goods at the top is a consignment markup, not the going rate, so ignore it unless you’re after an odd size.
For UK and US shoppers the picture is actually kinder. There are two pound listings, Slam Jam UK at £105 and BSTN UK at £126.99, and five dollar ones, running from $119.95 at Solefly to $140 at Slam Jam US, with Rock City Kicks, Undefeated and Burn Rubber in between at $130. So the cheapest way in right now isn’t the euro route at all; it’s that £105 in Britain.
The hype side is quiet, for what it’s worth. Our Hypescore has this one sitting INERT, the bottom of the scale, which for a shoe like this feels about right. No panic, no premium. Just a good red leather Air Force 1 that turned up on time.
Want to line it up against the rest of the Air Force 1 range, or the wider Nike catalogue? You can put the sizes and shops side by side in a minute, and the full price-per-size breakdown for this pair is a click away. I’m keeping my verdict mild this time. You decide: is this bordeaux ’01 a quiet Grail, or just another AF1 you let walk past? Grail or Bail.