The fighting game community has been one of the most competitive E-Sports scenes for decades, whether that be on a classic Street Fighter cabinet or a modern Mortal Kombat game on current generation hardware. One of the biggest events for the FGC (fighting game community) is Evo, an annual event focused exclusively on fighting games that began back in the mid-90s. The Director of Business Development for Evo, Mark Julio, is also a huge sneakerhead and was fortunate enough to be able to work with Nike on a pair of AF1 Lows that celebrates the FGC and a special moment that brought the community together, though the pair's release already occurred with almost no fanfare, let's take a look at this special Nike Air Force 1 Low FGC.
The white canvas across the upper comes as a nod to the Street Fighter character Ken and his infamous white gi, though this is just the beginning of nods to the classic fighting game. Running up the tongue is a set of matching white laces that weave in and out of the plastic eyestays, though the uppermost comes in a metallic parry spark design that references the graphic that appears when successfully parrying an attack in Street Fighter. Just above this is a Nike AF1 branded tongue tag, coming doubled, pays homage to the KO sign that appears once you knock out a character during a match.
Where your typical single Nike Swoosh would be present actually hosts triple designs as a cutout tan canvas comes with an embroidered outline of a slightly smaller Swoosh while a standard leather Swoosh gets shortened and moved up slightly. This is in reference to when the SF character Chun-Li does her super attack. Both the heel tab and insole get covered in navy with more double Nike Air branding details present.
On the back of the tongue tag, a direct nod to Evo Moment 37, the infamous comeback during the semifinal match during the 2004 event, is present via the move set used by Daigo Umehara to parry 15 consecutive hits with only one pixel of health left. Rounding out the entire silhouette is the white AF1 midsole with light blue accents, a nod to the super meter in Street Fighter, paired with a navy rubber outsole.
The Nike Air Force 1 Low FGC was designed prior to the pandemic and the release was put on hold, though it did eventually make its way to Nike Outlet stores with no fanfare and to no knowledge of Mark Julio. Recently finding out about the pair's release, Mark has taken to Twitter to share both excitement and disappointment that his storytelling was not conveyed properly for this pair that is so special to the entire FGC community. For more updates regarding the latest in the sneaker and streetwear scene, keep it locked to our Twitter and the Sole Retriever mobile app.
Nike Air Force 1 Low Canvas "FGC Evo Moment 37"
Images via Nike
Images via MarkMan23
