Sole Collector x Nike Air Presto ‘Hawaii’

Ask anyone who made it to the Hawaii event and watch their face change. The vibe, the people, the culture, all of it lined up into one of the best weekends this community ever put together. The doors opened on May 21st of 2005, and like every Sole Collector event back then, nobody in line knew the model, the colorway, or the theme until they were standing in front of it. The local newscast came down every single night to interview the team and the kids waiting, which tells you something about how the energy spilled out past the sneaker world and into the whole island. Having Mark Smith and Chris Lundy there only made it better.

The line itself became part of the legend. More than fifty people gathered days ahead of the launch, tents pitched and sleeping bags rolled out on the sidewalk, with DQ Thomas first in line the way he always was. This one wasn’t technically part of the NikeTown series that came later, but it is the pair that unofficially kicked off the entire run of Sole Collector collaborations. Everything that followed traces back to this weekend.

The shoe at the center of it is the most limited pair ever sold under the SC name. Forty eight pairs. That is not a typo and it was not an accident. It was also the first hyperstrike ever sold to the public at its original retail price, before that phrase even meant anything, back when a hyped pair wasn’t automatically jacked up over its sticker. You could walk up, wait, and buy the most limited thing in the building for what it actually cost. That feels almost impossible to explain to anyone who came up later.

The Presto was the right canvas for it. Waikiki runs on the kind of easy, slip-on comfort the Presto was built for, that stretchy second skin fit and the cage over the top, so the model picked itself. A Hawaii sunset fade baked into the upper, and palm trees running along the toe to seal the theme. The only real complaint anyone ever had was that they didn’t make a size XL.

What makes this one land is that the shoe and the event are inseparable. You cannot really talk about the Presto Hawaii without talking about the line, the newscast, the island air, the feeling that the community had traveled somewhere together and turned it into something the locals wanted in on too.

Forty eight pairs means most of us only ever saw photos. That is part of the legend. It exists more as a story than as a shoe you bumped into at the park, and the stories have only gotten better with time.

Were you on the island for that one, or is the Presto Hawaii a pair you’ve only ever chased through other people’s memories?

Photos by Nick DePaula

Part of The Complete Guide to Sole Collector Collaborations