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What is the greatest sneaker of all time? Is it the Air Jordan 1? Is it the Nike Air Max 1? Or is it the Nike Air Force 1? When this conversation comes up, the answer is usually going to be one of these three sneakers. For the purposes of the following list, let’s focus on the third one. The Air Force 1 has become part of the uniform for sorority girls, rappers, and just about everyone in between. Specifically, the white on white version. If you’re reading this list right now, I’d say that the odds of you currently owning or having owned a pair at one point in your life are around 90%.
Whether you call them “Uptowns,” or “White on Whites,” or “Airs,” or even “G-Fazos,” the triple white Nike Air Force 1 is a sneakerhead rite of passage. People like Floyd Mayweather and Jay-Z infamously only wear pairs of Forces once before moving on to the next one.
Outside of the original, there are countless Air Force 1 variants that come dressed in triple white. From Virgil Abloh’s Off-White “The Ten” collection to the polarizing DotSwoosh Nike Air Force 1 Low “Dirty Triple White” that dropped earlier this year, there’s no shortage of triple white Forces in different flavors. For this list we tried to give credit to originality where we could. Take Drake’s NOCTA AF1s for example; taking the stars on the outsole and turning them into hearts earned the rapper some huge ups in our eyes.
Check out the full ranking below and please tell us how wrong you think we are. But as always, bring your own list to the table if you’re going to disagree.
Year: 2025
Nike’s Air Force 1 Low “Dirty Triple White” might be the most intriguing pair on this list. In true Benjamin Button fashion, it’s designed to look like a worn and dirtied pair of white-on-white Air Force 1 Low straight out of the box, but the more you wear them, the cleaner they’re supposed to get. The sneaker embraces the notion of fans who always try to keep their pairs crispy while referencing others who like to wear them to the ground. To nobody’s surprise, fans were divided by the idea of the sneaker. But regardless of where you stand on its design, it’s cool to see the brand revitalize its iconic silhouette in a unique way. —Victor Deng
Year: 2017
Back in 2017, New York graffiti artist Stash and Nike released a limited Air Force 1 High collab as part of the Swoosh’s AF-100 collection and available only at ComplexCon. It paid homage to the collaborators’ beloved “One Night Only” Air Force 1 High from 2003, but this time, it was reimagined as an all-white sneaker. This version retains the all-over graphic of a spray can nozzle on the uppers as a nod to Stash’s graffiti work, a subtle tab on the right shoe with a stylized “S” to mark the collaboration, and translucent tooling with his signature graffiti tag at the bottom. —Victor Deng
Year: 2024
Horror movies and subtly aren’t two things that typically go hand in hand when it comes to sneaker themes, but this 2024 “Jason Vorhees” Nike Air Force 1 Low expertly pulled off the hockey mask look with zero sacrifice to wearability. The simple shapes of the old school goalie protection played perfectly into the existing perforations of the Air Force 1’s toe box, and the result was a sneaker that could easily be mistaken for a pair of standard white-on-white lows. It’s rare that such a literal execution on a theme can be kept so clean, but it’s exactly why this shoe makes the cut (pun intended). —Zac Dubasik
Year: 2025
The “Mamba Forever” Air Force 1 is the most recent white-on-white release here, and is also the most slept-on pair here. There wasn’t much noise around them when they hit retailers last month, and if you search hard enough, they’re still on shelves, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t a good shoe. This version of the white-on-white Air Force 1 pays homage to Kobe Bryant’s “Black Mamba” moniker by covering the upper with a snakeskin graphic as well as his jersey numbers and Sheath logo on the heels. It’s a solid new take on the iconic “Triple White” Air Force 1 Low without doing too much. —Victor Deng
Year: 2023
Nike’s “Color of the Month” series of Air Force 1s is often credited for saving the model from fading into obscurity. Thanks to the shoe’s popularity in Baltimore, retailers convinced Nike to let them sell exclusive colorways in a program that proceeded the collaborations and regional exclusives we know so well today. The concept has been revisited a few times since, first being brought back in 2015, and more recently in 2022 in a multi-year program that came packaged with a toothbrush for cleaning. This triple white version from 2023 featured the polarizing jewel Swoosh and a semi-translucent sole, adding some unique details to the traditional style. —Zac Dubasik
Year: 2003
Ask any sneaker fan about retired NBA Champion Rasheed Wallace, and the first thing to come up will be the Nike Air Force 1. Wearing the high-cut version of the antiquated sneaker on court throughout the majority of his basketball career was a feat of perseverance, and forever ties him to the retro silhouette. His best-known variations featured bold colored uppers, typically in all patent leather. But it was only right that the Air Force 1 guy would also have all-white patent versions as well, featuring his logo on the heel. We’re not suggesting you wear these on court yourself, but if you were to hoop in an all-white AF1, this would be the easy choice. —Zac Dubasik
Year: 1990s
My greatest memory of this sneaker isn’t a memory of the shoe at all. I was young in the ’90s, not wearing Air Force 1s at all. But rather, in my first few weeks at Complex, I put together a list of the best patent leather Air Force 1s of all time. I focused mostly on the shoes from the era of 2005-2006 when patent ruled the world. I saw the late DJ Clark Kent at a Foot Locker event at MSG later that evening. He told me he read the list, and that it wasn’t good because I left these patent leather Air Force 1s off the list. Well, they aren’t going to be left off this one. —Matt Welty
Year: 2020
Quite possibly the most unique triple white Air Force 1 on this list, the Cactus Plant Flea Market AF1 borrows the “AIR” hit from the Nike Air More Uptempo on the right shoe and a “SUNSHINE” hit on the left. The Air Force 1 is one of the most recreated sneakers on the market, so any time Nike does something outside of the box with the iconic silhouette, it’s worth paying attention to. This pack came in a number of other colorways as well like black, pink, and green but for my money, the white is the clear standout, repurposing a time-tested classic into something entirely new. —Ben Felderstein
Year: 2007
$2,000 for a pair of Air Force 1s at retail is crazy—especially for a pair of white on whites. But that’s what we got back in 2007 for the 25th anniversary of the Air Force 1. Nike made two different shoes, a python and an anaconda. One brown, one white. They were made in Italy and extremely limited. It pushed the concept of what a “sneaker” really was. Maybe people don’t remember them as greatly in this generation, because it’s nearly impossible to track down a pair these days. But the concept would hit even today. —Matt Welty
Year: 2003
Italian-made Nikes weren’t entirely novel when this Air Force 1 Low “Lux” dropped in 2003—the original Air Jordan 2 preceded it by over 15 years, and an all-black high top version released in 2001 alongside an Air Max 95 and Air Trainer SC. But it was something unexpected for a shoe that was known to be relatively accessible to the masses. The shoe featured a woven midpanel and toebox, round laces, a leather lining, and a metal “Made in Italy” hangtag in the shape of the county. There have been much more expensive iterations of white Air Force 1s in the years since, but this was as luxurious as it got at the time. —Zac Dubasik
Year: 2022
Canadian rapper Drake and his Nike sub-label NOCTA were able to transform the all-white Nike Air Force 1 into a meaningful project with their “Love You Forever” collab. Many originally thought the sneaker was created to coincide with his Certified Lover Boy album, but the pair was in fact made to celebrate his mother and their favorite childhood book, Love You Forever, by Robert Munsch. The collab featured subtle updates like “Love You Forever” replacing the traditional “Nike Air” branding on the sides of the midsoles and swapping the stars on the outsoles for hearts. The project also included a special edition of the aforementioned book, and tying all those elements together makes the sneaker worthy of a spot on this list. —Victor Deng
Year: 2017
If you wanted to make the claim that Virgil Abloh’s Off-White “The Ten” collection is one of the most important collections in sneaker history, I think it’d be pretty difficult to argue against. The majority of the pack took legendary Swoosh brand silhouettes and dressed them in white with exposed stitching, Off-White lettering, and other key details. A clear highlight of “The Ten” was the “Triple White” Air Force 1 that boasts a number of different textures on its upper and a translucent midsole. In the year 2025, this white on white AF1 might look a little more like a yellow on yellow colorway, but we’re gonna base this on what the pair looked like in 2017. You won’t be able to grab a pair on the secondary market for much less than $3,000, making it one of the most sought after triple white Air Force 1s in history. —Ben Felderstein
Year: 1990s
This might be the most controversial sneaker on the list. Some people love mid-cut Air Force 1s. Some hate them. It’s usually older heads who hate the Mid, because when Air Force 1s came out in the ‘80s, it was highs and lows. The mids came out in the ‘90s and weren’tn seen as an OG. But as time goes on, that matters less and less. The sneaker was adopted by the younger generation. Nelly wore them. A$AP Rocky wore them. And then it didn’t matter. It was nostalgic for a new crowd. And you could find white on white Mids everywhere. But you couldn’t find the Highs. So a lot of people actually thought the Mid was the High. Weird how that works. That’s why this shoe is so high. —Matt Welty
Year: 2022
Virgil Abloh’s all-white Louis Vuitton x Nike Air Force 1 was a standout in the late designer’s multi-shoe LVxAF1 project, and it’s a standout amongst all-white Nike Air Force 1s, period. And it should be, considering its $2,750 retail price—although a bargain in hindsight, with pairs selling for five figures on the resale market. The embossed monogram print maintains the classic white-on-white look, but in the most lux package the silhouette has ever seen. Gold foil detailing added an additional layer of prestige to the already elevated design. A mid-cut version was also available, but the low gets the nod for this list. —Zac Dubasik
Year: 1997
The alpha and the omega. The be all, end all of sneakers. The crown jewel. The pièce de résistance. The white on white Air Force 1. The most culturally relevant sneaker of all time. It’s not the shoe that birthed sneaker culture, but in a lot of ways, it informed the way we act. It came out sometime in the mid-to-late ‘90s, but the Genesis of the shoe has truly never been celebrated. People such as Jay-Z, DJ Clark Kent, and Dame Dash became known for wearing their white on whites once as a sign of opulence. It was hip-hop’s shoe. The hustler’s shoe. The everyperson’s shoe. The fresh person’s shoe. It was cheap. Disposable. Made to withstand a few wears before it was tossed. And it was always a point of contention, or pride, of how many times someone wore their white on whites. As time went on, the shoe changed. Literally and figuratively. In 2007, Nike reworked the Air Force 1 shape for the 25th anniversary. And the price on the white on whites went up. As time went on, the shoe branched out. Older people wore them. White girls wore them, and cooked them. It drew reactions of ire from many. But it pointed to a shifting sneaker landscape too. This sneaker laid the foundation for a lot of us. Even if you’ve never worn a pair of white on whites, how you wear and take care of your sneakers is influenced by them. It’s a blank canvas, but also a perfect sneaker in many regards. It needs no improving. You just need to wear them. —Matt Welty
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