Nike Air Force 1 '01 — College Grey and Pink Glaze: US release details

Launch: October 7, 2026 at 10:00 ET — Nike SNKRS US (US). 150 USD. Official release page.

Style IV6999-001 uses the slimmer Air Force 1 ’01 shape with hairy grey suede and Pink Glaze details. “Subway Rat” and “Pizza Rat” are coverage nicknames; Nike’s listing uses College Grey and Pink Glaze.

Nike’s exact US product data schedules October 7 at 10 a.m. EDT (9 a.m. CDT). The US $150 adult release is the offer covered here.

Collector context

College Grey and Pink Glaze gives the Air Force 1 a subway story through texture before it reaches for graphics. Nike’s description explicitly connects the hairy grey suede, pink outsole and pink accents to the small animals moving through the tunnels. Seen from the side, the restrained two-color treatment can read as a material-led AF1. Viewed from behind or inside, the joke becomes much more literal.

The extended pink heel strip resembles a tail. Men’s Journal’s examination of the official imagery also identifies NYC embroidery behind the tongue, pizza artwork across the insoles and a MetroCard-inspired hangtag. These details operate at different distances: the suede establishes the animal reference across the whole shoe; the rear strip supplies a recognizable outline; the hidden artwork rewards a closer look. The most location-specific elements sit where they will not dominate an ordinary side view.

That combination explains the “Subway Rat” and “Pizza Rat” names used in coverage. Sole Retriever connects the pizza-and-transit imagery to the 2015 viral clip of a rat carrying a slice down New York subway steps. Nike’s release title remains College Grey and Pink Glaze. The two descriptions emphasize different parts of the same design: the official name names the palette, while the nicknames explain why those colors, that texture and those accessories appear together.

The ’01 suffix supplies a separate historical layer. Nike describes this edition with a slimmer toe profile, while Sneaker News places the revived shape in its 2001 lineage. It is a reference to the shoe’s proportions, rather than the age of the subway colorway. Nike had already made that approach explicit in its Nigo Air Force 1 announcement, explaining that the collaboration revived the sleeker 2001 shape. The shared era gives useful context for the lower-looking forefoot here; it does not turn this pair into a Nigo collaboration.

New York storytelling also predates the rat theme. Nike’s archive of the 2001 West Indies Air Force 1 records a design celebrating the city’s West Indian culture and annual carnival through dedicated graphics and color. The references are different, but both examples show how a familiar basketball silhouette can become a canvas for a particular place.

That is what makes this release more specific than a grey suede variation. Its shape looks back to one period of the AF1, while the surface and hidden details tell a separate city story. The two layers meet in a shoe that reveals its subject gradually, from the fuzzy panels to the heel, tongue and insoles.

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Source: official product or release details.