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The Nike Air Max Dn was one of our favourite Nike releases of 2024, and now, with the annual celebration of Nike Air coming up on the 26th of March, the brand has dropped a new bubbly silhouette that puts the technologies of elite performance footwear into a silhouette designed with the aesthetics of moving through everyday life.
Called the Nike Air Max Dn8, this sneaker deploys full-length Dynamic Air, with two dual-pressure Air units and eight tubes to respond and offer comfort underfoot as you move. While it might sound overly complicated in a world of performance foams, it allows the shoe to be more responsive, and comfortable, as air moves from the back to the front of the shoe as your foot transitions from heel to toe when walking.
Excitingly, the Nike Air Max Dn8 is available right now in several new colourways ahead of Air Max Day. Additional men’s, women’s and kids’ colourways will drop as we edge closer to the celebration of Air Max, but for now, these are available to cop in Black Volt, Triple Black, Black and Red, and White and Black, at nike.com and select retail partners for AUD$260. Now, let’s take a closer look at the technology that makes the Dn8 one of the most highly anticipated sneaker releases of the year.
The Dn8 is a successor to the Nike Air Max Dn from 2024, and while the shoe utilises similar technology, it’s been turned up to the max (no pun intended) with two dual-pressure Air units and eight tubes. Comfort is a top priority because of this, and while you could put some serious miles in with this air unit, they’re a lifestyle shoe by design.
Some will find the technical style of this silhouette pushes the boundaries too far, but this is the expected reaction to a shoe this cutting-edge. Like a modern-day Nike Tn, the same could be said for the release of that shoe when it broke cover in 1998. It was ahead of its time, and while it’s one of the most famous Air Maxes of all time now, it took a while for the silhouette to grow on people in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
“When designing the Dn8, we kept thinking about what makes some of our favourite classic Air Max models so great: that you can put them on and go, and whatever happens over the course of the day, that shoe is not only going to succeed, it’s going to exceed expectations”, said Jonathan Kosenick, lead designer, men’s sportswear at Nike. “We wanted to build a shoe that had the same sort of ‘go anywhere, do anything’ character.”
Next to the air unit, the Dn8 is breathable with a soft upper that appears like a modern iteration of the Nike Tn with waves in a sleek, modern pattern. The designers of the shoe have also added air while keeping the shoe low to the ground, and this gives a bouncier, more comfortable ride.
“For the Dn8, we wanted to be lower to the ground. We wanted to feel more Air. We wanted to improve transition,” said Kosenick. “All of those goals led us to design the shoe with eight Air chambers directly in contact with the ground, which allows the chambers to more effectively compress and be much more flexible, delivering a much bouncier, springier sensation that channels a Nike performance footwear approach into a shoe you want to wear every day.”
The Air Max Dn8 was first made available in a vibrant pink colourway on SNKRS and at select retail partners on the 6th of February 2025. However, it hasn’t exactly flown off shelves as the brand had hoped. The release of new, more wearable colourways will hopefully give the shoe the credit it deserves, and it’s now available globally at nike.com and select retail partners for AUD$260. Additional men’s, women’s and kids’ colourways will launch in the following weeks.
