The leather was sourced from genuine Sherrin footballs, the same used in the AFL grand final. The red pair uses the ‘daytime’ ball, while the ‘night-time’ edition makes for a striking yellow and black combination that is used under lights. Each individual shoe utilises all four panels of a game ball, which are still made in Sherrin’s Melbourne premises. With more than 135-years experience in the business of balls, Sherrin is an iconic name in Australian manufacturing. Hometown pride was definitely a huge factor here!

To continue the local theme, both shoes are fully lined with black kangaroo leather — one of the softest hides in the animal kingdom — while waxed cotton laces recall the white lacing on the AFL ball.

The Air Force 1’s uppers were deconstructed and manually restitched by hand at BespokeIND, a process that took over 40 hours per pair to complete. The new uppers were then reattached to the original sole units. The detailing is insane. The hand-lasted shape is sculpted to perfection. Air Force 1 purists will also detect some of the enhancements added to the shoe’s profile, which has been slightly raked at the toe and sharpened in the heel area. The insoles are carved from hand-cut vegetable-tanned leather that has been laser-etched. The tongue labels are also lasered and beautifully stitched.

Shoes this good deserve deluxe packaging, and both pairs are presented in custom acrylic boxes complete with turf inlays, AFL goal post graphics and a golden ‘Melbourne Rules’ logo that references the iconic Sherrin game ball design.