Nike releases a Air Max BW based on Rotterdam

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Air Max BW, Nike is set to release a city pack. One of the models is appropriately inspired by Rotterdam. The shoes are released on November 12 and Woei is the only official store to offer the shoes.

The link between Rotterdam and this specific model is Gabber. Rotterdam is the birthplace of Gabber, a very hard and loud style of dance. It’s characterised by fast beats, distorted & heavier kickdrums, with darker themes and samples, and was developed in Rotterdam in the 1990s. It developed into one of the country’s most significant youth culture movements. 

The original producers like Paul Elstak and DJ Rob are still popular to this day. Elstak and DJ Rob organised parties first at Parkzicht in Rotterdam and when the numbers attending increased they moved to the Energiehal. 

Nike Air Max BW Rotterdam sports the city’s signature colors

Gabber is very intense and the ravers developed a new style of dancing called hakken. It’s characterised by fast leg movements and kicking frantically. So they needed comfortable clothing because they moved so much and sweat a lot (also because of the use of XTC and speed). Most men shaved their heads bald, while women braided their hair and shaved the sides.  Fashion-wise, gabbers wore tracksuits, bomber jackets, and Nike Air Max shoes. 

The Nike Air MAX BW was designed by Tinker Hatfield just around the same time as Gabber came up. The Air Unit became longer and this gave the shoe the name: Big Window. This of course explains the abbreviation BW.

Nike now acknowledges this heritage. The Nike Air Max BW Rotterdam sports the city’s signature colors of green and white together with black. Elevating the sneaker’s overall look are geometric-graphic insoles and 220 BPM as a reference to hardcore music. Finally, the city’s name is spotlighted in all caps on the heels.

The shoes will be on November 12. Woei, the owner and namesake of the most famous sneaker store in Rotterdam, has confirmed the shoes can only be bought at his new store and on his webshop. It’s located across his current locations in the Hoogstraat. The new shop is already wrapped in advertisements for the shoes.

The sneakers are part of a special City Pack. Cities like Lyon, Los Angeles and Beijing are also included.