Key Points
- The Nike Air Bakin OG returns in its original Varsity Red/White/Varsity Maize/Black colorway.
- Style code IQ5365-600, priced at $170, releasing Fall 2026.
- Designed by Eric Avar, the Bakin was Tim Hardaway's shoe on the Miami Heat.
- It drops via Nike SNKRS.
Nike is bringing back the Air Bakin OG in the colorway that defined it: the original Varsity Red/White/Varsity Maize/Black makeup. The return lands in Fall 2026 at $170, style code IQ5365-600, through Nike SNKRS.
The shoe
The Air Bakin is a late-'90s Nike Basketball design from Eric Avar — bulky, ribbed across the upper, with the aggressive paneling that defined the era when Nike's hoops shoes were built to look as menacing off the court as on it. Its fame is tied to Tim Hardaway, who wore the Bakin during his Miami Heat run, and this Varsity Red colorway leans into that history with a palette pulled straight from the Heat's red-and-maize identity.
Why now
Nike has spent 2026 mining the loud, heavy end of its '90s basketball archive — the same instinct behind the run of Foamposite Pro retros earlier this year and the Shox BB4 OG's own return in August. The Bakin is a deeper cut than either, a shoe that rewards the buyers who actually lived the Hardaway-era Heat rather than the casual retro crowd. Returning it in its first colorway, untouched, is the move that matters to that audience.
The pitch
At $170, the Bakin sits below the $240 Foamposite tier but carries the same bet: that there's lasting demand for the maximalist silhouettes Nike Basketball made before minimalism took over. For collectors, the OG colorway is the whole point — this is the Bakin as it first shipped, not a reinterpretation.
Source: SneakerNews, Sneaker Bar Detroit
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