Nike revealed the fourth shoe from its Nike Air Works program on Oct. 15: a 3D-printed Air Max mule by Los Angeles designer Masyn, made with Zellerfeld. Like the rest of the eight-shoe series, it’s slated for a limited friends-and-family run, and Nike hasn’t announced a price or a public release.
If you print at home, the material is the part to watch. Zellerfeld prints shoes like the Air Max 1000.2 in zellerFOAM, a TPU “specially engineered” for 3D-printed shoes, and it doesn’t sell the STL files or the filament. So you can’t print a Nike yourself, and the printed Nike that did reach retail is Zellerfeld’s $179 Air Max 1000.2.
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What Nike’s Air Works Program Is Releasing, and When
Air Works brought eight designers to Nike’s Beaverton, Oregon, campus from May 11 to 14, 2026. Each one worked with Nike designers and engineers on an Air Max style, with Zellerfeld as the manufacturer. Here is the current schedule from Nike’s Oct. 15 update:
| Month | Designer | City |
|---|---|---|
| July 2026 | Motoi Hatsuki | Tokyo |
| August 2026 | Tasnim | London |
| September 2026 | Marc Su | Beijing |
| October 2026 | Masyn | Los Angeles |
| December 2026 | Jose Wong | Shanghai |
| January 2027 | Yams | Paris |
| February 2027 | Omi | New York City |
| March 2027 | Diya Joukani | Mumbai |
The calendar has moved. Nike’s May version put the Mumbai shoe in November. The new list pushes it to March 2027 and leaves November empty. The series leads into Air Max Day 2027.
According to Complex, Masyn’s shoe is a slip-on with a pink Max Air unit, a small Swoosh on the sides, and stars embossed on the outsole. Its friends-and-family event was set for Nova Studios in LA.
Why 3D Printing Suits Nike’s Air Works Short Runs
Nike hasn’t said why it chose printing, but 3D Printing Industry points to short runs: a conventional sneaker has a cut-and-stitched upper and a molded sole, and the molds have to be made for each design. Printing skips most of that tooling, which makes eight small batches for eight cities practical.
The same report traces the partnership back to limited Air Max 1000 drops in late 2024, followed by the Air Max 1000.2 at retail in May 2026.
Zellerfeld’s product page still lists the Black/Glacier Blue pair at $179, sold out when I checked on Oct. 21. The shoes are printed in Austin and Hamburg.
The next announced step is custom orders. In May, Nike said the Air Max 1000 would become a Nike By You option “later this year.”
What Nike and Zellerfeld’s 3D-Printed Shoes Mean for Desktop TPU Printers
If you wanted to print a Nike yourself, that door is closed. Zellerfeld’s help center says it sells no STL files, filament, or other parts of its process “at this time.”
If you own a Bambu Lab printer and want wearable shoes, the closest route is FORMISM’s Persona Footwear Package, a set of shoe models made with Bambu Lab for desktop printers that opened on MakerWorld in January. FORMISM’s rules are strict: TPU at 90A or 85A (or foam TPU), fed from the rear spool holder instead of the AMS, dried at 55°C for at least six hours, with PLA supports.
If you’re picking filament for a first pair, start with a soft grade from our ranked list of flexible TPU filaments. And if TPU is your reason to buy a new machine, our Black Friday 3D printer deals page rounds up the offers worth a look.
My read: the hard part to copy isn’t the printer. It’s the fit, plus the Air unit. Persona does offer parametric sizing and tells you to size up by one, but that is still a size chart.
Zellerfeld sells on a “Perfect Fit Guarantee,” and 3D Printing Industry reports that the marketplace it relaunched in July now stores each buyer’s measurements in a fit profile. Masyn’s mule also has a Max Air bag in the midsole, and no desktop TPU print replaces that.
The counterpoint is the Air Max 1000.2 itself: Zellerfeld sells it in full US men’s sizes only, even though the same page says the shoe is reengineered to fit your own sizes.
What We Don’t Know Yet About Nike Air Works
- Whether any Air Works design will get a public release, and at what price.
- How many pairs each friends-and-family run includes.
- When the Air Max 1000 actually opens on Nike By You.
Even Nike’s own pages disagree on details. A May explainer on Nike.com calls the May 11 to 14 session “three days” and lists Seoul instead of Mumbai, while Nike’s newsroom lists Mumbai.
The December shoe is next. Until Nike opens one of these to the public, the closest thing to a printed Air Max on your build plate is a dry spool of TPU and a lot of patience.
