Header: Courtesy of NIKE Inc.
Nike and the LEGO Group have just released a space-themed basketball collection for kids, made up of two sneakers, the Air Force 1 Low LV8 and the S.T. Dynamite, plus four pieces of clothing decorated with planets, rockets and minifigures. It is the latest release from the multi-year partnership the two brands announced in 2024, which saw its first products come out in the summer of 2025.
Two space shoes
The Air Force 1 Low LV8 was given a pale upper with small creases, made to look like the suit an astronaut wears in space, and black stitching in the style of a sketch traces the outline of each of the shoe’s panels. On the side, the classic Swoosh was redrawn as a rocket flying around a yellow planet, which is a nod to the logo of LEGO Space. The toy line was launched in 1978 alongside the very first minifigures, whose astronauts wore that same rocket and planet on their chests.
The rest of the shoe, dressed in sail white, yellow, cobalt blue and red, keeps up the theme. Grey rope laces close with toggles, the pull tabs are striped in red, the outsole is painted a translucent blue, and astronaut graphics cover the heel and the inside of the shoe.
The S.T. Dynamite, a Nike basketball shoe made for children, takes the collection to an ice planet. Its upper, in black and blue, is speckled with stars and given colour-shifting finishes, with bright cyan graphics on top, a lavender sole and a glittering outsole. To make it easier to put on and take off, the shoe has elastic laces along with a hook-and-loop strap.
Galactic sports apparel
The clothing was inspired by the tunnel walk, the moment players walk from the locker room to the court before a game, here imagined as a walk into an arena in outer space. The printed ripstop trousers (ripstop being a fabric woven with a grid of thicker threads that stops tears from spreading) were made to match the materials of the Air Force 1.
The full-zip fleece hoodie, meanwhile, has both the LEGO Space and Nike logos, as well as a lenticular patch of a basketball minifigure, printed so that the image changes as the wearer moves. On the sleeve, a spaceship port holds a custom minifigure of the Roswell Rayguns, the fictional alien-themed basketball team Nike created for its adverts during the 2002 NBA playoffs.
The collection is completed by a graphic T-shirt styled like a basketball uniform and a pair of Dri-FIT mesh shorts (Dri-FIT being Nike’s fabric that draws sweat away from the skin) printed all over with the surface of the moon.
