Nike x One Piece Collection Officially Announced, Turns Devil Fruits Into Three Air Max Plus Designs

Nike is officially teaming up with One Piece for a new footwear and apparel collection built around some of the most recognizable elements from the long-running manga series.

At the center of the collaboration are three versions of the Nike Air Max Plus inspired by the Gomu Gomu no Mi, Ope Ope no Mi and Mera Mera no Mi Devil Fruits. Each fruit determines the design and colors of its corresponding sneaker, with Nike creating completely retooled uppers specifically for the collection.

The idea came from the special abilities Devil Fruits give characters in One Piece. “We were inspired by the superhuman abilities that are unleashed when One Piece characters eat the Devil Fruits, much like the feeling an athlete has when they put on a pair of Nikes. We then started reimagining the beloved Air Max Plus in a way that fans of the silhouette have never seen before,” said Nick Remlinger, GM, Energy Gaming at Nike.

The footwear is only part of the release. Nike is pairing the three Air Max Plus designs with jerseys and caps influenced by pieces from the Nike archive, while additional T-shirts incorporate artwork pulled directly from One Piece. One T-shirt design takes inspiration from the Jolly Roger drawn as “a mark of a promise” by Monkey D. Luffy. Other shirts use manga illustrations reworked in the style of classic Nike advertisements. A Nike x One Piece collaboration logo also appears throughout the apparel.

Another unusual piece is a vest inspired by one of the drawbacks of eating a Devil Fruit. In One Piece, those who gain the fruits’ powers are described as being “hated by the sea” and lose the ability to swim, a concept Nike used as the basis for the vest.

Nike will begin rolling out the collection before its full worldwide launch. The first release takes place through a Tokyo pop-up running September 4 through September 6. Select pieces will then appear at retailers in Hong Kong, Jakarta, Mexico City, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei and Umeda on September 12. Another group of stores in Amsterdam, Dallas, Decatur, Düsseldorf, Lawrenceville, London, Madrid, Milan, San Diego, Stockholm and Washington, D.C. will receive parts of the collection beginning September 19.

The full Nike x One Piece collection launches globally through SNKRS on September 25. A final listed retail experience will follow at Supply in Sydney from October 16 through October 18.

Between three newly designed Air Max Plus sneakers, manga artwork, archival Nike influences and apparel tied directly to One Piece lore, the collaboration gives One Piece fans considerably more to chase than just a single sneaker release. Nike is also teasing that there are “even more surprises coming” as the collection rolls out.