A new pair of limited Nike sneakers appears to be designed to evoke Nintendo’s classicDonkey Kong Countryseries, based on its looks. These Nike shoes with theDonkey Kong Countrytheme don’t have a firm release date but are expected to launch sometime in mid-2025.
Over the last few years, Nike has made major strides in tying its brand appeal to gaming culture. Not only is the shoe company releasing limited sneakers based on popular game series, but it’s also putting real-life shoes inside games themselves. Late 2024 saw the launch ofFortniteNike skins, as well as NikeFortniteKicks, a cosmetic upgrade that allowed players to buy in-game replicas of real-life Nike shoes for their characters.
Now, based ona reveal published by Hypebeast, Nike has unveiled a new shoe variant it’s calling “Big Head Origins.” Though indirect, the naming and design of the shoe appear to be referencing classic SNES-era platformerDonkey Kong Country. The shoe itself is based on theNike Air Max 1 that appeared inFortniteas part of a collaboration event. The shoes are expected to debut in the spring or summer of 2025 and cost roughly $150 USD at launch, though Nike has not officially confirmed or listed the shoes yet.
Nike Shoes Seemingly Reference Donkey Kong Country
The Nike sneakers were designed in line with the “Low Poly” aesthetic unveiled bylegendary Twitch streamer Kai Cenatin 2024 and feature a similar polygonal-looking Nike swoosh logo on the sides. The design features a mix of tones designed to evoke the look of fur, with the mudguards colored in chocolate brown. The soles are colored bright yellow, the same yellow asDonkey Kong Country’s ubiquitous bananas. The interiors of the shoes even containDonkey Kongreferences, with “DS coins” on the insides that are made up to look like the DK coin collectibles ofDonkey Kong Country 2.
Reaction to the reveal of the shoes online was positive, with longtimeDonkey Kongfans happy to see an old favorite referenced. Some players were puzzled by the use of the name “Big Head Origins” for the shoe, considering that none of the Rare-developedDonkey Kong Countrytitles have a “big head” mode or cheat. Some speculated that it could be a reference not toDonkey Kongdirectly but to Rare, which labeled thebig head mode inGoldeneye 007"DK Mode," as triggering it gave characters the same proportions as Donkey Kong.
The design of Nike’s newDonkey Kongshoes underscores the lengths the company will seemingly go to appeal to fans of classic games. If it proves successful, more fun references and attractive designs based on fan-favorite series could make their way to stores and shoe racks in the future.
Donkey Kong Country
Released over just a two-year period between 1994 and 1996, many consider the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy to be among the finest side-scrolling platformers ever made. After a long hiatus, the series returned in 2010, with another game then being released for the Wii U some four years later.
