Nike's Space Hippie sneakers won't launch in the U.S. until July

Those of you who are in the U.S. and patiently awaiting Nike's Space Hippie collection will have to wait a little longer. The brand has announced it is delaying the drop of its highly anticipated sustainable sneakers, which was originally scheduled to happen on June 11 globally, until July 3 for all of North America. The date will remain unchanged for people in in Europe and other parts of the world, however, which is great news for sneakerheads and hypebeasts outside of the U.S. who are looking to get a pair of Space Hippies.

Another delay — "In an effort to demonstrate our respect for the consumer, community and our retail partners," a Nike spokesperson told Input, "we postponed the launch of Space Hippie in North America until July 3." While the company didn't specify why, exactly, it made the decision, it's safe to say it has to do with the protests against racial injustice that are taking place across the U.S. And considering that nothing right now should matter more than the Black Lives Matter movement, it's an understandable choice from Nike.

Made from recycled plastic water bottles, t-shirts, yarn, rubber, and factory scraps, the Space Hippie collection consists of four different sneakers and was revealed back in February. The Space Hippie 1, 2, 3, and 4, which range from $130 to $180, have already been delayed once, due to the COVID-19 outbreak that forced Nike (and basically every company) to rethink its entire business.

Space Junk — For Nike, the launch of Space Hippie represents making an even bigger push into sustainable products and, most importantly, taking them mainstream. The result is a collection of funky-looking sneakers that feel like they're from the future, featuring unconventional, recycled materials and fabrics that give each Space Hippie pair a unique appearance. It's all by design, too.

"Really what [it] comes down to is the opposite of sustaining what we've got right now," Noah Murphy-Reinhertz, sustainability design lead at Nike's Innovation Kitchen, told Input in an interview earlier this month about the design of Space Hippie. "It's actually trying to figure out what comes after what we're doing today. How are we designing the future in a way where sport will always be there, in a way where making products has a positive impact on the planet? My job is to sort through that on a day-by-day basis, using all of the legacy of sustainable innovations that Nike has and figuring out what the next big step forward is."