Nocturnal Skate Shop, a South Street staple that has sold Nike SB skateboarding shoes for over two decades, is releasing its own official Nike SB Air Force 1 collaboration Saturday morning, backed by a block party packed with music, food, drinks, and a pop-up skate park built just for the occasion. The kelly green and gray suede sneakers drop in-store at 10 a.m. in limited quantities, with the celebration kicking off at 2 p.m. on the 500 block of South Street.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, shop owner Brannon John said the team hopes to get the entire city behind the collaboration, adding that Nocturnal had tried for years to develop partnership ideas with Nike before this one finally came together. Multiple professional skaters from the Nike SB team are slated to attend the festivities, and the shop will also debut apparel designed by local artist Eric Kenney, sold in-store the same day.
A Shop Born From Philly's Skate Legacy
Nocturnal didn't appear out of nowhere. Professional skateboarder and 2000 X Games gold medalist Kerry Getz founded the shop in June 2000 on 4th Street, opening it shortly after the closure of historic Philadelphia retailer Sub Zero, according to Sole Retriever. The shop has since become a hub for Philadelphia street skaters even as the city's relationship with the sport has shifted dramatically over the decades.
John pointed to that legacy directly, telling the Inquirer that LOVE Park and City Hall are internationally known iconic skateboarding sites and that Philadelphia has produced many skateboarders who went on to build major careers. That history runs deep: in 2004, two years after the city officially banned street skateboarding at LOVE Park, footwear company DC Shoes offered Philadelphia $1 million to maintain and repair the plaza in exchange for legalizing skating there, an offer city officials rejected, per PhillyVoice.
Philly Joins a Global Sneaker Lineup
The Nocturnal collaboration is part of Nike SB's Air Force 1 City Pack series, which anchors four international skate shops: Nocturnal in Philadelphia, Ben-G in Amsterdam, Instant Skateboards in Tokyo, and Fly Streetwear in Shanghai, according to Sneaker Files. The regional distribution strategy effectively revives Nike's original 1984 Color of the Month program, which let independent local retailers pick custom colorways and drive neighborhood releases, according to KicksUnderCost.
The rollout is structured in two phases. Nocturnal's exclusive shop-branded pair, with the word Nocturnal embroidered on the heel, releases in-store Saturday, while a logoless version launches on Nike SNKRS on October 27. Both versions are priced at $120, a setup Sneaker Bar Detroit reports was designed to preserve local skate shop exclusivity before the broader online drop.
Eagles-Inspired Design Details
The sneaker's design leans heavily on Philadelphia sports and plaza aesthetics. Sole Retriever describes a steel-grey suede upper, a Court Green suede Swoosh, a black midsole styled after Eagles away jerseys, gold logo lace dubraes, and custom insoles. It's a continuation of Nike's broader pattern of courting Philadelphia's sneaker and lifestyle scene; in May 2024, the brand released the Dunk Low Philly in collaboration with local boutique Lapstone & Hammer, featuring cityscape concrete textures and green-and-yellow laces matching city street signs.
Eric Kenney, who designed Nocturnal's custom packaging and apparel under the name Heavy Slime, previously illustrated official gameday posters for the Philadelphia Eagles during the team's 2023 season. One of his new t-shirt designs for the launch features an eagle's talons clawing the Nike Swoosh logo, while another shows a kelly green eagle perched on the Liberty Bell, available printed on either a hoodie or a t-shirt.
From Banned Plazas to a Sanctioned Skate Park
Saturday's celebration also arrives against the backdrop of a notable shift in how City Hall treats street skating. In April, Philadelphia opened a renovated $18 million public space with a sanctioned skate area at Thomas Paine Plaza outside the Municipal Services Building, built using salvaged granite from historic skate spots including LOVE Park and City Hall, according to PhillyVoice's reporting. Ahead of Saturday's shoe launch, Nocturnal and Nike SB had already been building momentum with local skaters, hosting a Passyunk Avenue skate demo and video premiere in April that introduced a re-engineered skateboarding Air Force 1 silhouette, featuring new obstacles supplied by Nike SB, according to the shop's own Instagram account.
Nike is also launching companion sneakers with skate shops in Japan, China, and the Netherlands as part of the same series, per the Inquirer's reporting. For Nocturnal, Saturday's block party and sneaker drop mark a milestone moment for a shop that has spent more than two decades serving Philadelphia's street skating community through storefront moves, shifting retail trends, and a city that only recently began embracing the culture it once pushed out of its most famous plazas.
