Feature: Nike Air Max Viva in Plum Dust

Nike Air Max Viva in Plum Dust seen from behind, showing the camouflage-patterned heel, speckled grey sole and visible Air unit, worn with rolled black jeans.

The Air Max Viva was a women's-only Air Max, and the two sets of laces are the thing everyone noticed. Nike launched it in spring 2021 as one of the headline shoes in that season's Air Max collection, in two colourways: Plum Dust, the pair in our photos, and Iron Grey. We shot ours the week it landed.

What is the Nike Air Max Viva?

A women's shoe from the start, not a men's shoe cut down. Nike said it was engineered specifically for a women's foot, with a lifted foam heel sitting on top of a Max Air unit, and it comes up chunkier and higher at the back than an Air Max 90. The look borrows from hiking boots: tough suede and nubuck on the upper, a grippy patterned outsole, and cord laces in place of flat ones.

Why does the Air Max Viva have two laces?

Because it's built to take two separate laces at once, each made of a heavy-duty cord. You can tighten the top and bottom of the shoe independently, or just run both colours through for the look. Ours are laced in purple and mustard, crossing over each other the whole way up, and Nike put spare laces in the box so you can change the combination.

A pair of Nike Air Max Viva in Plum Dust worn with rolled black jeans, laced with purple and mustard cord laces, with a blue Nike Air tab on the heel.

The Plum Dust colourway

Nike's full name for it is Black/Plum Dust-Dark Citron-Green Abyss, style code DB5268-003. The upper is a dusty pinkish plum in suede and nubuck, with black mesh underneath and a lot of fine stitching over the top. A camouflage-style pattern in the same plum runs around the heel, and the same pattern turns up again on the underside of the speckled grey sole, so you only see it when you're walking. The mustard lace is the Dark Citron, and there's a tiny orange Swoosh on the toe.

Nike Air Max Viva in Plum Dust from the side, with a small orange Swoosh on the toe, camouflage-patterned heel and two-colour cord laces, worn with rolled black jeans.

What to wear with the Air Max Viva

We wore ours with black jeans rolled up to just above the ankle. It shows off the heel, which is the best bit, and plain black stops the plum and mustard fighting with anything else. It's a chunky shoe with a raised heel, so it looks better with a straight or wide leg than with anything skinny.

The Viva in our photos sold out a long time ago. For the trainers we have in now, have a look at our footwear, and if you want to know where Air Max cushioning came from, we've written about Nike visible Air.

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