Linking up in Los Angeles ahead of Brazil’s opening Copa America fixture, The Surgeon recently reunited with Vinicius Jr. to present him with a custom Nike Air Force 1 design dubbed the ‘Air Vini Uptempo AF1’.
Having recently created some custom adidas Predator turf boots for Brazilian legend Kaka, The Shoe Surgeon turned his attention to the midfielder’s compatriot, and Nike sneaker aficionado, Vinicius Jr. For this he created a custom Nike Air Force 1 design, complete with bespoke details and callouts to the Real Madrid attacker, before presenting it to the man himself.
Those details included the words “Vini”, “JR7” and “AIR” sprawled down the sides of each sneaker in The Surgeon’s signature scale effect – a look notably seen on the custom boots that The Surgeon created for Kellyn Acosta around this time last year. It’s an interesting point of note given that Dominic Ciambrone (The Surgeon himself) has been posting about the possibility of creating another custom football boot soon.
The Air Vini Uptempo AF1 follow on from The Surgeon’s recently revealed Brazil-inspired SB Dunks for Vini Jr. and serve as a tease for further collaboration. The pair have previously hooked up when Real Madrid were on tour in the States in 2022, and they’re heading that way again this summer…
