Created for one of the most technically groundbreaking animated films of its era, the Nike Air Raid II "ParaNorman" represents an extraordinary piece of unreleased Nike history. Produced in 2012 to celebrate LAIKA Studios' second feature-length film, these exceptionally rare Promo Samples were never released to the public. While Nike's ParaNorman Foamposites became one of the most recognizable movie-inspired sneakers of the decade, the Air Raid II remained an elusive creation, produced in extremely limited quantities and reserved for a select circle of friends and family.

The story behind these sneakers begins with ParaNorman, the 2012 stop-motion animated film that followed LAIKA's critically acclaimed debut, Coraline. Directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler, ParaNorman tells the story of Norman Babcock, an 11-year-old boy who can see and communicate with the dead. Misunderstood by his family, bullied by his classmates, and considered strange by nearly everyone around him, Norman discovers that his unusual ability may be the only thing capable of saving his town from a centuries-old witch's curse.

Set in the fictional New England town of Blithe Hollow, the film brings together ghosts, zombies, supernatural forces, and the unmistakable visual language of classic horror movies. But beneath its frightening imagery is a story about acceptance, empathy, and the dangers of judging people simply because they are different. Norman's greatest strength is the very quality that makes him an outsider, giving the film an emotional depth that extends beyond its supernatural premise.

Like Coraline before it, ParaNorman was created using stop-motion animation, a painstaking filmmaking technique in which physical puppets and miniature sets are repositioned and photographed one frame at a time. But the film also represented an important technological milestone in animation history.

ParaNorman became the first stop-motion feature film to use full-color 3D printing to create replacement faces for its characters. Rather than relying exclusively on traditional hand-painted facial components, LAIKA used groundbreaking 3D-printing technology to produce thousands of interchangeable expressions, allowing its puppets to display an unprecedented level of emotion, detail, and subtlety. More than 31,000 individual facial parts were printed during production, combining digital precision with the physical craftsmanship that defines stop-motion filmmaking.

The result was a film that helped push the boundaries of what was possible in animation, bringing together traditional handmade artistry and emerging technology in a way that would influence LAIKA's subsequent productions. Released theatrically on August 17, 2012, ParaNorman received widespread critical acclaim and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature.

That spirit of experimentation and unconventional creativity carried directly into Nike's collaboration with LAIKA.

The relationship between the two companies began with the 2009 Nike Dunk High created for Coraline. LAIKA is owned by Nike co-founder Phil Knight, whose son Travis Knight serves as the animation studio's president and CEO. Through their collaborations, Nike and LAIKA developed a distinctive approach to film-inspired footwear, translating the visual identities and storytelling of animated movies into collectible sneaker designs rather than conventional promotional merchandise.

For ParaNorman, Nike explored two distinct silhouettes: the Air Foamposite One and the Air Raid II. The Foamposite would become the better-known release, distributed in highly limited quantities through a promotional campaign. The Air Raid II, however, would remain largely unseen by sneaker-collectors.

The choice of the Air Raid II was particularly meaningful. The original Nike Air Raid debuted in 1992 as a Tinker Hatfield-designed basketball sneaker engineered specifically for outdoor courts. With its distinctive crisscross support straps, durable construction, and unmistakable streetball identity, the Air Raid became one of the defining basketball silhouettes of the early 1990s. Its advertising campaign featured NBA star Tim Hardaway alongside filmmaker Spike Lee, connecting the shoe to the era's growing intersection of basketball, street culture, and urban style.

The Air Raid II continued that legacy in 1994, and nearly two decades later, Nike revisited the silhouette through the ParaNorman collaboration. The project marked the first retro interpretation of the Air Raid II, featuring modifications to the original design and graphics inspired by LAIKA's supernatural film.

Nike designer Tinker Hatfield, who played a role in the company's LAIKA collaborations, was particularly enthusiastic about the project. In Nike's own retrospective on the partnership, Hatfield described the ParaNorman Air Raid II as one of his favorite Nike projects, explaining that his personal enthusiasm for the design was a reason the company pursued a second sneaker for the film.

The resulting design transformed a classic outdoor basketball shoe into something that appeared to belong in Norman's world of ghosts, zombies, and the undead.

The sneakers feature a black, white, and electric green color scheme, with their signature crisscross straps reimagined through bone-inspired detailing. Skeletons and skeletal graphics appear along the midsoles, while electric green laces provide a vivid contrast against the darker upper. The outsoles glow in the dark, reinforcing the movie's supernatural aesthetic and giving the shoes a second visual identity when the lights go out.

These details are not merely decorative. They connect the Air Raid's distinctive construction to the imagery of ParaNorman, turning the silhouette's recognizable support straps into skeletal elements and translating the film's eerie atmosphere into a wearable design. Much like the movie itself, the sneakers balance playful creativity with macabre imagery, combining familiar elements with something unexpected.

Although Nike ultimately brought the ParaNorman Foamposite One to a wider group of collectors, the Air Raid II was never offered for public sale. Nike has since acknowledged that the model was produced in extremely limited quantities for friends and family, making it a particularly difficult artifact to obtain within the broader history of Nike and LAIKA collaborations.

That distinction gives these Promo Samples their significance. They represent a Nike design that was fully realized but never entered the conventional retail market, preserving a lesser-known chapter of a celebrated creative partnership. For collectors, the appeal extends beyond rarity alone. These sneakers offer a glimpse into Nike's design process and the unconventional ideas that emerged when one of the world's most influential footwear companies collaborated with a pioneering animation studio.

This particular pair is a US men's size 10.5 in the Black, White, and Electric Green colorway. As Promo Samples, the shoes retain their original sample hangtags containing manufacturing specifications. No standard retail style number or color code is identified for this pair.

The sneakers remain completely deadstock, brand new, factory laced, and never tried on. They retain their original laces, insoles, and box, preserving their original presentation.

More than a rare pair of Nike sneakers, these unreleased Air Raid IIs represent an unusual convergence of basketball heritage, groundbreaking animation, and experimental footwear design. Connected to the first stop-motion film to pioneer full-color 3D-printed character faces, and personally championed by one of Nike's most influential designers, they preserve a remarkable moment in the creative history of both Nike and LAIKA.

For collectors of rare footwear, unreleased samples, and cinematic history, the ParaNorman Air Raid II stands as a seldom-seen artifact of a collaboration that helped redefine the relationship between sneaker culture and animated film.

Footwear Size: US M 10.5