Being an anime fan apparently wasn’t expensive enough already.
Nike is bringing One Piece into the sneaker world with a new Air Max Plus collection inspired by the anime’s legendary Devil Fruits ,and some of the pairs arrive this week.
Instead of doing the predictable thing and putting giant character illustrations across the shoes, Nike went a little deeper into the One Piece universe.
The sneakers take inspiration from Devil Fruits including the Gomu Gomu no Mi, associated with Luffy, alongside the Mera Mera no Mi and Ope Ope no Mi. Their powers and colors are translated into different Air Max Plus designs, with references that fans will probably notice immediately while everyone else simply sees a very loud pair of sneakers.
The Gomu Gomu version is especially hard to miss, arriving in purple with bright green details.
And honestly, collaborations like this say a lot about where anime sits culturally now.
Anime merch used to mean a graphic T-shirt from a convention. Now some of the biggest fashion and sneaker companies in the world are treating anime franchises like major cultural properties worthy of full collections.
One Piece, already one of the biggest franchises on the planet, getting the Nike treatment feels inevitable.
The SNKRS rollout starts this week, although availability differs depending on the country.
Good luck to the sneakerheads.
And even better luck to the One Piece fans who are about to discover sneaker resale prices.
