1 colorway of the Nike Air Rift Breathe on SoleBook.
The Nike Air Rift, and later its lighter Breathe variation, trace back to the late '90s, when Nike's design team drew inspiration from traditional African running gaits and the barefoot mechanics of Kenyan athletes. Released in 1996, the original Rift stood out instantly thanks to its split-toe construction, a design meant to mimic natural foot splay and improve ground feel, wrapped around a curved, low-profile silhouette that looked unlike anything else in the running category at the time. The Air Rift Breathe emerged as an evolution of that concept, swapping in perforated or mesh-like uppers to prioritize ventilation, making it better suited to warm-weather wear and casual, beach-adjacent lifestyles rather than serious mileage. Though it never became a performance staple, the Rift found a cult following in Europe and Japan through the 2000s, often worn as a statement piece rather than a training shoe. Its cloven-toe look, sometimes compared to hoof or camel-toe silhouettes, made it polarizing, which only fueled its niche appeal. Periodic retros and colorway refreshes have kept the Breathe version circulating, appealing to collectors drawn to Nike's more experimental, non-conformist archive pieces.