A size-9 Nike Moon Shoe sold at Sotheby's in 2019 for $437,500, the most anyone had ever paid for a pair of trainers. On 1 October 2026, Nike put a production version of that shoe on Lisa from BLACKPINK and listed it for $105. Fifty-four years between the waffle iron and the K-pop campaign, and the price went down by roughly 99.98 percent.
The pair Lisa wears is the Moon Shoe OG in "Tough Red," style code IX3952-600, officially Tough Red/Mystic Dates/Gum Light Brown/Sail on Nike.com, where it is live at $105 with sizes in stock as of this week. Complex and Hypebeast both reported the campaign the same day: Lisa in a red colour-blocked ensemble, the shoe shot low and close so the exposed waffle tread does the talking. No Jacquemus involvement this time, despite a few outlets conflating it with the September "Emerald Rise" collab. This is Nike Sportswear's own inline Moon Shoe, and that distinction is the whole story.
Why Nike Gave Its Oldest Shoe to a Pop Star
The Moon Shoe was never meant to be looked at. Bill Bowerman poured urethane into his wife's waffle iron, glued the result to a nylon upper, and handed roughly a dozen pairs to runners at the 1972 US Olympic Trials in Eugene. The name came from the footprints the studded sole left in dirt, which looked like the ones on the lunar surface. For 55 years the shoe existed only as a prototype, a museum piece, and an auction headline.
Then 2026 happened. Nike finally put the OG into general release in April at $105, followed with the Italy Blue and Sail/Chlorophyll pairs we covered in August, let Jacquemus do a fashion version in September, and now, in October, hands the campaign to the most-followed woman in K-pop. Rolling Stone UK's write-up of the Lisa campaign calls the positioning "a heritage everyday trainer," which is corporate language for: we want this on feet, not shelves.
Our take: it is the right call, and it is overdue. Nike's retro business is in trouble this quarter; the CEO said on the 1 October earnings call that the company has been oversupplying its iconic retro product. The Moon Shoe is the opposite problem. It is a retro with zero supply history and zero fatigue, and a $105 flat-soled runner is exactly the kind of low-profile silhouette that has been eating the Dunk's lunch since the Samba boom. Lisa is not selling nostalgia here. She is selling a shoe most of her audience has never seen.
The Shoe Itself: Burgundy Nylon, White Swoosh, Gum Waffle
Tough Red is burgundy more than red. The upper is nylon with a large white leather Swoosh, the colourway's "Mystic Dates" is the deeper wine tone on the heel and eyestay, and the sole is Nike's Gum Light Brown rubber in the original waffle pattern. There is no midsole. The 2026 Moon Shoe OG is a faithful reconstruction: textured nylon, suede-look panelling, and a waffle outsole glued straight to the upper, per HiConsumption's March preview. It is as thin as it looks.
That thinness is the point and the warning. We have had the Sail/Chlorophyll pair since August and the ride is closer to a Blazer Low than a Daybreak: flat, grippy, no bounce. For a day of walking Connaught Place or Indiranagar it is fine. For anything longer, it is not. Sizing runs true to length but the toe box is narrow in the 1972 way; wide-footed buyers should go up half a size, especially in nylon, which does not stretch like leather.
India: Price, Where, and the Honest Resale Answer
Nike India has not listed any Moon Shoe OG colourway as of 4 October, and a search of VegNonVeg and Superkicks this week returns nothing for the model. That has been true since the April launch; our August piece noted the same gap. So the India path is an import, and here is the maths at today's rate of ₹96.19 to the dollar (fxfeed.io, quoted 4 October 2026).
$105 converts to about ₹10,100. Footwear under HS 6403 carries 35 percent basic customs duty, a 10 percent social welfare surcharge on that duty, and 18 percent IGST on the whole lot, which compounds to roughly 1.634 times the declared value. Landed, a Tough Red is around ₹16,500 before courier charges. That is Air Jordan 1 Low money for a nylon runner with no midsole, and it is the single biggest reason the Moon Shoe has stayed a curiosity here while it sells out in Tokyo and Seoul.
Resale: there is no StockX page for the Tough Red yet, and we will not invent a number. What we can say is that the April Soft Pearl/Black women's pair and the August Italy Blue both sit on StockX as ordinary general releases rather than hype flips. A Lisa campaign shifts demand, not supply. Nike.com still shows sizes. Pay retail or pay customs. Do not pay a reseller.
Verdict: The Best $105 Nike Is Now Also the Best-Marketed One
Tough Red is the strongest Moon Shoe colourway so far, and it is not close. Italy Blue was loud, Sail/Chlorophyll was safe, the Jacquemus pairs were a fashion exercise. Burgundy nylon against a gum waffle is what the 1972 shoe would have looked like if Bowerman had cared about colour, and it photographs the way the campaign needs it to: dark upper, bright Swoosh, sole on show.
Is the hype real? There is no hype yet in India, which is why this is the moment. A ₹16,500 landed cost stings, but it is a one-of-one silhouette in a market full of Sambas and Dunks, and nobody at your Sunday run club will have seen one. Style it the way Lisa does: monochrome, red on red or black on black, trousers cropped enough to show the sole. The shoe is the quietest thing in the frame. That is the brief.
Fifty-four years ago a dozen pairs went to runners who did not know they were wearing history. This month, millions of people will see one on Lisa and have no idea it was ever anything but a trainer. Both are correct. If you want something from the same 1970s running lineage that already clears Indian customs, see what Nike we have authenticated and in stock right now.
For the full 2026 Moon Shoe timeline, from the April SNKRS launch to the August wide release, read our Moon Shoe general release guide.
