FLOAT 100 · Sneakers · No. 19
Off-White x Nike Air Force 1 '07 'MoMA'
Sold only from a museum shop on West 53rd Street, Virgil Abloh's black-and-silver Air Force 1 began as a pair he cut up on his first visit to Nike and became one of the most valuable shoes he ever made.
- Year
- 2018
- Maker
- Nike x Off-White
- By price in sneakers
- 23 of 100
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Create a free account- Official name
- Air Force 1 '07 Virgil x MoMA
- Style code
- AV5210-001
- Colorway
- Black/Metallic Silver-Black
- Designer
- Virgil Abloh (Off-White) with Nike, for the Museum of Modern Art
- Occasion
- MoMA's exhibition 'Items: Is Fashion Modern?' (October 1, 2017 to January 28, 2018)
- Released
- January 27, 2018, only at the MoMA Design Store, 44 West 53rd Street, New York
- Retail price
- $175 in most reports ($170 in others)
- Included
- Co-branded Nike Elite basketball socks, given with purchase
- Sizes
- 6 to 15
- Production
- Not published by Nike or the museum
Twelve shoes cut by hand
The MoMA shoe starts with the very first thing Virgil Abloh made at Nike. On his first visit to the company's Beaverton, Oregon, headquarters in October 2016, he rebuilt a pair of triple-black Air Force 1 Lows with an X-Acto knife and drew on them with markers. 'By the time I made my first trip to Beaverton, I immediately wanted to make something,' he said. 'I didn't wait all those years just to have meetings at Nike.'
That exercise turned into 12 Air Force 1s, all handmade at Nike's Blue Ribbon Studios, which his staff wore that December at Design Miami, where Abloh was showing Off-White furniture. He wanted the tongue foam exposed, a silver Swoosh with thick, obvious stitching, and text nodding to the shoe's origins in Beaverton. Those details would define the MoMA release more than a year later.
The Air Force 1 itself dates to 1982. Designed by Bruce Kilgore and named for the presidential plane, it was the first basketball shoe to use Nike's Air technology. A white-on-white version was part of Abloh's 2017 collection 'The Ten,' in its translucent 'GHOSTING' set.
Is fashion modern?
From October 1, 2017, to January 28, 2018, the Museum of Modern Art in New York ran 'Items: Is Fashion Modern?', an exhibition of 111 garments and accessories that shaped the 20th and 21st centuries, organized by senior curator Paola Antonelli and Michelle Millar Fisher. The Air Force 1 was among the items featured.
Nike and the museum marked the show with a small release: the 'OFF-WHITE by Virgil Abloh for MoMA' Air Force 1 in black, a co-branded Nike Elite basketball sock as a gift with purchase, and a reissue of '1Thology: The Air Force 1,' an archive print first published in 2006.
The shoe went on sale on January 27, 2018, the day before the exhibition closed, at the MoMA Design Store at 44 West 53rd Street. Doors opened at 8 a.m., sizes ran from 6 to 15, and the purchase included free admission to the museum. Some sources say the release commemorated the exhibition's opening; it actually arrived in its final weekend.
What makes it a MoMA
The upper is black leather with large metallic silver Swooshes on both sides, finished with thick stitching. Helvetica text runs on the medial quarter, 'AIR' sits on the lateral midsole, an orange tab is attached to the lateral Swoosh, and a white or translucent plastic zip tie hangs from the laces. The tongue foam is left exposed.
The retail box carries a label tying the shoe to the Museum of Modern Art, and the purchase came with white socks branded MoMA, Off-White and Air Force 1. Because socks were a gift with purchase, pairs are sold today both with and without them.
Images of the shoe and its box surfaced in mid-January 2018, and Drake was photographed courtside in a pair before the release. Abloh posted a video of himself signing a pair the day before the drop.
From $175 to five figures
The shoe sold out almost immediately on release day. It was sold only in New York. When official product images unexpectedly surfaced in July 2019, a release-news site called the pair 'unquestionably one of the most valuable pairs that Abloh has ever created.'
In 2020 a size 11 pair was bought from a resale retailer for $5,056, according to a 2022 securities filing that described the shoe as celebrating the museum's exhibition. In October 2026 the lowest listed price for a pair was $15,828, in size 6.5.
In 2020 Abloh posted a product shot of the shoe on Instagram, setting off speculation about a reissue. None followed; a 2022 securities filing noted the shoe had not been re-released.
The first of three museum shoes
The MoMA pair became the first of three museum Air Force 1s by Abloh. In 2019 he marked his own exhibition, 'Figures of Speech' at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, with a University Blue 'MCA' pair, the first of which went to Serena Williams. The series ended in 2021 with a University Gold 'ICA' pair for Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art.
Abloh died in Chicago on November 28, 2021, at 41. A complete set of all three museum pairs in size 8.5 was later offered at auction in New York, with an estimate of $5,000 to $7,000.
The museum and Nike have continued to collaborate. When a later museum-store sock release was announced, a sneaker publication traced the partnership back to Abloh's black Air Force 1.
The numbers
- Style code
- AV5210-001
- Colorway
- Black/Metallic Silver-Black
- Release date
- January 27, 2018
- Where
- MoMA Design Store, 44 West 53rd Street, New York only
- Retail price
- $175 (some reports say $170)
- Sizes
- 6 to 15
- Gift with purchase
- Co-branded Nike Elite basketball socks; free museum admission
- Production
- Not published
Timeline
Bruce Kilgore's Nike Air Force 1 is introduced, the first basketball shoe with Nike Air.
On his first visit to Nike, Abloh cuts up a pair of triple-black Air Force 1s with an X-Acto knife.
Abloh's staff wear 12 handmade black Air Force 1s at Design Miami.
MoMA opens 'Items: Is Fashion Modern?'
Abloh's white 'The Ten' Air Force 1 is released.
Drake is seen courtside in the unreleased black Air Force 1.
Photos of the shoe and its MoMA retail box surface.
Abloh posts a video of himself signing a pair.
The shoe goes on sale at the MoMA Design Store in New York at $175 and sells out almost immediately.
'Items: Is Fashion Modern?' closes.
Abloh's 'MCA' Air Force 1 marks his 'Figures of Speech' exhibition in Chicago.
Official Nike images of the MoMA pair surface more than a year after release.
A size 11 pair is bought for $5,056.
The 'ICA' Air Force 1 for Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art completes the museum series.
Abloh dies in Chicago at 41.
A complete set of the MoMA, MCA and ICA pairs is offered at auction in New York.
The world in 2018
President Trump boasts on Twitter that his 'nuclear button' is bigger than Kim Jong-un's.
The Philadelphia Eagles beat New England 41-33 in Super Bowl LII for their first Super Bowl title.
A gunman kills 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Ryan Coogler's Black Panther opens and becomes one of the highest-grossing films of the year.
Abloh is named artistic director of Louis Vuitton menswear.
President Trump meets Kim Jong-un in Singapore, the first such meeting.
The Boston Red Sox win the World Series over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 27, 2018 | $175 | Asking price, not a saleRetail price at the museum store as reported by most sources; others report $170. |
| 2020 | $5,056 | Private saleSize 11, bought from a resale retailer; disclosed in a 2022 securities filing. |
| Oct 1, 2026 | $15,828 | Asking price, not a saleLowest listed price, size 6.5. |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Off-White x Nike Air Force 1 '07 'MoMA' is number 23 of 100 in the sneakers entries of the FLOAT 100. 22 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (19 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The shoe went on sale the day before the exhibition it celebrated closed.
- Buying a pair came with free admission to the Museum of Modern Art.
- Its silver-Swoosh design traces to 12 handmade black Air Force 1s Abloh's staff wore at Design Miami in December 2016.
- Official Nike photos of the shoe did not surface until July 2019, 18 months after it sold out.
- It was the first of three museum Air Force 1s by Abloh, followed by Chicago's MCA in 2019 and Boston's ICA in 2021.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026