Nike Hot Step Air Terra Nocta White

Recently, Drake cooked up yet another project with Nike – the Hot Step Air Terra NOCTA.
The shoes were released in two colorways: all white and all black. It’s definitely something new and fresh on the sneaker scene and therefore an exciting project – I would say you either love or hate this shoe. For me, the moment I saw it, I knew I had to get a pair. The aesthetics of the NOCTA Air Terra’s are definitely giving me retro 90’s dad shoes vibes, but in a cool way that works with today’s sneaker culture.

The upper is made of a good quality leather and has a lot of cool details to it, for example the
NOCTA jewel logo on the tongue, chrome mini swooshes on the ankles and toeboxes, and
some reflective panels on the heel and around the laces. The sole features a yellow Air unit
which looks really fun and subtle at the same time. I think overall quality could have been slightly better, as the paint job on the midsole is uneven and there are also quite some glue marks visible. However, the stitching is done well and leather is on the nicer, softer side – this is what counts the most to me.

When buying sneakers, I stick to my usual size 99% of the time, but for the Hot Step Air
Terra NOCTA, I actually had to go 0.5 size up. I got a pair in 9 US which feels a bit snug and
I’ve heard a lot of opinions about this shoe fitting small. I am sure that once you break into
them, you’ll be fine, but I’d say consider getting 0.5 size bigger than your usual.

Whether or not there will be some more colorways in the future, I feel like the white and
black pairs will become the go-to classics. I personally like both, but wasn’t able to secure
the black pair on release day. What about you, which one do you prefer?