Palace Skateboards has never been one for half measures, and its third Nike collaboration proves the point. After warming up on the Total 90 3 and the Air Max Dn8, the London label is taking on the silhouette that refuses to slow down: the Air Max 95, rebuilt here in Big Bubble proportion and finished with a gradient that reads like a love letter to sneaker history.
The colourway is the whole story. Metallic silver at the front bleeds into black at the heel, and the transition runs through every one of the 95's signature wavy stripes. The look is a deliberate nod to the Air Max 97 Silver Bullet, one of the most revered colourways in Nike's archive. On the 95, the effect feels less retro tribute and more like the shoe has been tagged in silver, as though a pair of black 95s caught a spray can overhead on a skate ramp somewhere in South London.
Mesh layers land in solid silver, while the sole unit, tongue, collar and lining stay black. Then there are the accents. Baby blue hits the heel, the visible Air units, the lace loop striping, and the dual logos on both the tongue tag and insole. Palace branding shows up again on the outsole window and heel counter, making sure nobody mistakes this for a general release.
Beyond the footwear, the collaboration stretches into a 25-piece apparel capsule. Three tracksuits anchor the clothing range in blue, black and white, each carrying the same co-branded graphics that define the full assortment. Hoodies, t-shirts, shorts and mesh bibs round out the offering. For the campaign film, Palace sent two lads time travelling from 2026 back to 1995 to dumbfound their hosts with both their sneakers and their bars.
Palace is celebrating the drop with TOUR MAX 26, a pub crawl through Liverpool, Manchester and London headlined by rapper Jawnino and produced with Victory Lap. The Air Max 95 dropped first through Palace stores and its webstore on 10 April before a wider Nike release via SNKRS on 16 April. At $200, it sits in that awkward middle ground between accessible and hype-priced, but for a Big Bubble 95 with this much narrative baked into the finish, the math tracks.