NMD in Camo

I’ve never understood why the NMD_XR1 stuck around. It breaks every rule of sneaker design in ways that feel half-baked—the TPU cage, the waxy suede heel cap, all these details that shouldn’t add up to anything worth looking at. But adidas keeps releasing colorways, and people keep buying them, and somehow it just works.

When they dropped five camo versions, I thought it was a joke. Camo is the safest, most exhausted pattern in menswear, and the NMD already wears its indifference like a uniform. Black, white, pink, blue, olive—all of them trying to hide in plain sight, which defeats the entire point of both camouflage and a statement sneaker.

But I get it now. The Boost sole underneath actually feels different on your feet, not groundbreaking but honest. And the shoe’s willingness to look awkward is part of why it lasted. It doesn’t apologize for itself, which is its only real design principle. The camo versions just leaned further into that indifference. Maybe that’s what keeps bringing them back.