NIKE'S JOGA BONITO AIR MAX BLENDS AM95 WITH RONALDO'S R9

Naked Copenhagen is now carrying Nike's Air Max Joga Bonito in a blue, green and black colorway, available online and in store. It is the same shop that brought back a 2009 marathon flat this July, and Joga Bonito grafts the upper geometry of Ronaldo Nazario's 1998 Mercurial R9 boot onto the bubbled outsole Sergio Lozano built for the 1995 Air Max 95.

The R9 Boot Hiding Inside an Air Max 95

Nike built the Joga Bonito around the silver and black Mercurial R9 that Ronaldo wore at the 1998 World Cup in France, matching its wave paneled upper to the visible air unit and gradient midsole of the Air Max 95. Joga bonito translates from Portuguese as play beautifully, the phrase Nike put on billboards in the mid 2000s to sell Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and the Brazilian style of the game rather than one specific boot. This is the first time the campaign name has landed on a full retro running shoe instead of a boot or a jersey.

Three Colorways Since July, One Now in Copenhagen

Nike opened the run on July 2 with an R9 pair in metallic silver, varsity maize and varsity royal for 180 dollars, then followed with a two tone grey Neon colorway on July 30 that pulled its volt green swoosh straight from the original 1995 Air Max 95. A black, university red, dark smoke grey and white pair released September 3, and Naked Copenhagen is now selling a fourth reading in blue, green and black a week later. The Danish retailer's own Adidas Evo SL capsule ran through August, putting Joga Bonito on a shelf that already skews toward running heritage over hype.

The swoosh Phil Knight built by pouring rubber into a waffle iron in 1971 is casting back 28 years to a final Brazil lost 3 nil to France, a game Ronaldo nearly missed after a seizure left him off the first team sheet before he was reinstated minutes before kickoff. At 180 dollars, Joga Bonito reads less like a hype drop and more like the Air Max archive getting a football literate remix, and Naked Copenhagen picking it over the more obvious R9 or Neon pairs says the shop is betting the story sells the shoe, not the color.