About

Nike Initiator

The Initiator was for years one of the most low-key shoes Nike made, and that very trait became its savior. It is a simple running trainer from the 1990s that remained in the lineup for decades, far from the hype and often in the racks for a bargain. When fashion shifted back to understated, technical running shoes, a classic suddenly stood there that had never gone away.

The look comes straight from the trim-shoe era. Over the white mesh lie silver-grey plastic overlays with a vertical pinstripe pattern on the side, the Swoosh is outlined with a contrasting edge instead of being solid-filled, and the brand appears on the tongue in block letters on a small label. The sole continues in separate segments into the heel and has a visible cushioning core in a contrasting shade.

The reappraisal is part of a broader movement. Low-key running shoes from the nineties and noughties, the kind you saw at the gym rather than in the sneaker store, were rediscovered by a generation that had had enough of flashy silhouettes. The Nike Vomero underwent the same shift, as did the stacked silhouettes of the Nike Air Zoom Vomero line.

Anyone looking for the model in the range will notice the variants are close to one another: the differences lie in material accents and the finish of the overlays, not in the shape.

On this page you can see which versions of the Nike Initiator are currently hottest according to the Hypescore, the starting prices, and in how many shops they are in stock.