Nike Reveals New Freddy Krueger Inspired Shoes For Halloween

A Nightmare On Elm Street is one of my favorite horror franchises and I adore Robert Englund’s performance as blade-fingered dream murderer Freddy Krueger. A new entry in the series seems like a distant prospect right now, but with Halloween on the way, Nike has unveiled a limited edition sneaker inspired by the movies.

Seen below are a modified pair of Nike Air Max 95s with “Velvet Brown” and “University Red” stripes and metallic silver overlays speckled with red intended to bring about memories of Freddy’s bladed glove. Nike claims that the design is intended to evoke Krueger’s iconic sweater but (as I’m sure you’ve noticed), this shoe has red and brown stripes and the killer famously wears a red and green striped sweater. I dunno, maybe they decided that red and green clashed too much?

While I’m sure sneakerheads will go nuts for these, for me they’re a big letdown. If you’d have shown me these shoes without any context, I’d have no idea whatsoever that they’re designed around Freddy Krueger. In any case, there’s no release date for them yet, but they’re expected to drop sometime in October and will undoubtedly sell out immediately.

Leaving the sneakers aside, though, when might we see another Nightmare on Elm Street? Unfortunately, we don’t yet know, but when a new film does arrive, the best tactic may be to follow the template laid down by Halloween, which ignored the many sequels and was a continuation of the original movie.

But could Robert Englund be tempted back for one more whirl in the fedora and glove? Well, there’s a chance he’d return, but he also seems to recognize that it might be time for someone else to step in. Englund’s previously talked about Kevin Bacon being a good fit for the role and seems eager to see the franchise get a reboot. But regardless of what they do, there’s always going to be an appetite for another Nightmare on Elm Street.

The rights to the series currently lie with Wes Craven’s children, though Englund says he’s confident that they possess their late father’s horror instincts. With any luck, then, they’ll bring back A Nightmare on Elm Street in a form more exciting than a pair of sneakers.