The Swoosh Man—or the mononym Swoosh, as per his official name—was a superhero mascot introduced in the 1990s by Nike’s nascent Sports Entertainment division. Unfortunately for the man, his contemporaries in the superhero realm at the time were the incredibly neon and nipple-embossed Batmen of Joel Schumacher’s creation; who didn’t really give their crimefighting brand a good name. If he’d arrived in a post-Iron Man world, he might’ve been the leader of a brand division that would be making Phil Knight the richest non-athlete in sports, undisputedly.

For now, our humble superhero would have to settle as the face of the new Nike Air Kukini design.

The sneaker was first introduced in the post-Matrix Y2K, in a time when futurism was indelibly permeating the zeitgeist. Hence, the aesthetic. 20 years on and the shoe is seeing a resurgence with wild new iterations coming one after another like the “Glitch” and the “Lemon Venom and Aurora” colorways.

This one’s decked in a dominant silver chrome that even Alex Murphy (aka RoboCop) could wear on his off day. While its signatures remain—the TPU web cage overlay and the Air Bubble unit on the heel of the outsole—there’re some distinctions. The Swoosh Man is patterned across the upper over a comic strip base, stylized after the elements of the superhero genre. The insoles feature names of a fictional program that inspired the design: “Nike and the Mighty Swooshers” on the left pair and “The Battle of Dimension Six” on the right (Dimension Six being what Nike would’ve been called if Phil Knight had his way).

As much as we would want to see new retrofitting of classic models, this one doesn’t require any. It was already designed for the future from its inception. It’s simple enough a canvas for new experimentation, yet inimitable enough to become iconic.

Check out another Nike Air Kukini we love, the “Leopard Kumquat and Action Red.”