2025 certainly seems to be Donkey Kong's year. He's got a new attraction at Super Nintendo World, Donkey Kong Country Returns HD has arrived on the Switch, and he's had a new look revealed as part of the Nintendo Switch 2 trailer. Now, Nike have looked to Kong Island for inspiration for some sneakers that Nintendo fans will literally go ape for.
Released as part of the dotSWOOSH line, these Air Max 'Big Head Origins' sneakers have a light-brown suede that looks very much like DK's fur. I guess we've always wanted to walk a mile in DK's shoes... except for the fact that he's a monkey and doesn't wear shoes, but you know what I mean. The famous Nike tick on the side of the sneaker looks like it's jumped straight from the 16-bit visuals of the SNES game too.
There are lots of clever nods to the classic game like coins that look like the collectibles from Donkey Kong Country 2 and a banana from DK's hoard on the right insole. That's such a cool touch because no one is ever going to actually see this, but you'll always know it's there - let's just hope it doesn't make you slip up all the time!
The soles look perfect for stomping on King K.Rool's minions and diving into barrels and minecarts, and while you could get away with wearing these without being a Donkey Kong fan, I think that these will definitely appeal more to gaming fans and will be snapped up in a matter of minutes. I don't have any information about when they will be released yet, but they would make a great shoe for the Summer months so I'm guessing we'll see them launching around May/June time.
What's next for Nike now that they've created an homage to Donkey Kong? Will they give Bull Airs a run for their money and jump fully into the video game scene? Watch this space!
