When American brands Nike and Tiffany & Co. announced their collaboration to create a “Legendary Pair” set to drop in March of 2023, they successfully stirred up the fashion community and built anticipation amongst devout sneaker fans. To Nike and Tiffany’s surprise, the general public was disappointed by the sterling silver heel tabs and Tiffany script sewn onto tongue tags. The shoe served as a celebration of Air Force 1’s 40th anniversary, and the collab included the sneakers in addition to several other sterling silver accessories.

Here are the details: The Air Force kick is black suede with a Tiffany Blue Swoosh and Tiffany logo on the tongue, retailing for $400. The shoe comes with black rope laces as well as three pairs of flat laces in Tiffany Blue, yellow and white. All Nike Tiffany Air Force 1 1837 shoes arrive in a co-branded Tiffany Blue box, similar to the one customers at Tiffany & Co receive upon purchasing their fine jewelry. The shoe was sold separately from the several silver accessories, which included a shoe horn, whistle, brush, and shoelace dubrae, all of which, if purchased, could amount to an additional $1000.

Both brands captioned their respective Instagram posts: "When they said 'just do it,' we listened,” but did they? Fans were underwhelmed, and critics of the shoe felt as though the design was uninspired and lackluster. The shoe has managed to divide social media, leading some to review the collaboration as “timely” while others refer to the “legendary pair” as “hideous” or “lazy .”Favorably though, the Tiffany AF1 doesn’t even compare to the Louis Vuitton’s AF1 collab price-wise, pushing more interest towards the “better than average” pair.

Aside from the shoe itself, the streetwear x luxury fashion marketing is strategic. In the past, Nike has teamed up with other high fashion brands such as Jacquemus, Off-white, and Sacai. Other brands have done similar collaborations, such as Gucci x Adidas. The streetwear crossover to luxury sparks interest in the younger generation of consumers, and while the collaboration has been criticized, Tiffany and Nike have gained a lot of attention, and the marketing strategy will likely result in a strong revenue turn-out.

Ultimately, sneakerheads were not impressed, and the Tiffany x Nike collab brought more negative publicity than it did positive. Hopefully, future major collaborations to come in 2023 will result in a more settled manner as the fashion industry is constantly evolving in what will or won’t land as legendary.