Air Afrique x Nike: Elevation through flight

Across diasporas, flight carries stories of reinvention, imagination, and connection across borders. Afrofuturist thought in particular often looks to the sky as both a record of the past and a horizon for the future—a space where displacement transforms into new forms of belonging. As Édouard Glissant reminds us, “every diaspora is the passage from unity to multiplicity.”

When Air Afrique was founded in the Ivory Coast in 1961 as a Pan-African airline, it represented the ambitions of newly independent African nations. It built pathways between West Africa, Paris, and the wider world. It became a symbol of connection and cultural pride, embodying the centrality of flight.

In 2021, Lamine Diaoune, Djiby Kebe, Jeremy Konko, and Ahmadou-Bamba Thiam revived Air Afrique as a Paris-based collective. They have aimed to extend the airline’s mission into new forms, publishing, art, and design, that continue to celebrate Afro-diasporic culture. 

Following their first collaboration with Nike around the African Cup of Nations last year, the collective has now partnered with the brand on the new Air Max RK61. Named after the original Air Afrique airline’s flight code, RK, and its founding year, the silhouette and design are a multi-layered ode to themes of movement, memory and cultural elevation. 

According to Desphy, the shoe’s lead designer, “This project is meant to bring out the rich history of Air Afrique, highlighting what the airline represented as an achievement for the continent and the people of those West African nations, domestic and abroad.” Ahmadou-Bamba Thiam adds, “Air Afrique, the airline itself, took to the skies to transcend cultures and newly independent African people. We also speak of Air as a symbolic, metaphorical elevation through culture and humanity. This concept was really our starting point for the product design and was central to creating the elegant silhouette of the Air Max RK61.”

The project is brought to life through the Première Classe campaign, which reimagines the idea of “first class” not as a luxury or status, but as a cultural distinction and source of pride. The casting spans generations and disciplines: Didier Drogba, football legend; Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith, Ivorian sprinter; Oumou Sangaré, Malian singer; Aïssa Maïga, actor; Jeune Morty, artist; and Mme Daba Traoré, a former airline employee who connects the campaign directly back to Air Afrique’s lived history. Paris, the airline’s historic hub, provides the backdrop, with the notion of elegance serving as the junction between culture, heritage, and sport.

The RK61 incorporates design elements that connect directly to Air Afrique’s story: Morse code details, antelope-inspired zippers, interiors based on airline textiles, an invisible air bubble modelled on aero engines, and traction patterns recalling the movement of flight. “Nike is a universal brand with a cultural platform that reaches a wide audience and has always resonated with us, ever since we were kids,” says Ahmadou-Bamba. “There’s intention and distinction in every Nike innovation and design decision, and that’s what connects them to our story with Air Afrique—because that intentionality is at the centre of everything we do.”

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The Nike Air Max RK61 launches on October 9, 2025.