Kids Of Immigrants and Nike Football Reimagine the Total 90 as a Summer Mule

The heel is gone. That's the whole move. Kids of Immigrants and Nike Football stripped the back off the Total 90 III and converted one of early-2000s football's most recognizable silhouettes into a slip-on mule priced at $120, timed to land this summer as Los Angeles prepares to host 2026 FIFA World Cup matches.

Co-founder Daniel Buezo teased the project on his Instagram Stories in late March, offering the first close-up look at what the brand is calling the T90 Mule SP. Two SKUs are confirmed: IH4422-200 in Khaki and IH4422-201 in Velvet Brown, both built around a University Gold accent that threads through each colorway and keeps the football-pitch energy grounded.

The Khaki version runs Khaki/University Gold-Fusion Red-Orange Horizon-Light Mulberry-Classic, with red Swooshes cutting across low suede tongues and a burgundy inner lining. Velvet Brown goes darker: University Gold-Orange Horizon-Fusion Red-Off Noir-Anthracite, a richer palette that reads more locker room corridor than pitch. Both pairs share cork insoles stamped with KOI branding, a tactile detail that keeps the collaborative identity present underfoot rather than just on the lateral panel.

The co-sign came fast. Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Rauw Alejandro was spotted wearing the Velvet Brown colorway on April 6, the kind of organic placement that confirms the shoes exist beyond a teaser image and puts them in front of an audience that sits squarely at the intersection of Latin music, football culture, and streetwear.

The timing is deliberate. The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in June, with Los Angeles serving as one of its host cities, which means KOI is dropping a football silhouette in its hometown at peak global football attention. The brand, founded in Los Angeles in 2016, has built its identity around community, immigrant heritage, and collective belonging. A Total 90 mule released alongside a tournament defined by international representation is not an obvious move; it is a precise one.

This is KOI's sophomore Nike release. The 2024 Air Max Sunder collaboration established the partnership, and KOI sat out 2025 entirely without a new sneaker drop. That gap makes the T90 Mule feel considered rather than opportunistic. The pivot from Air Max Sunder to a football-coded silhouette also signals that KOI is not cycling through Nike's lifestyle archive at random; they are moving into spaces where their storytelling has a specific reason to exist.

As a practical object, the mule construction changes the use case meaningfully. Removing the heel from the T90 III turns a structured football-inspired silhouette into something you slide on without pausing. For summer commutes, post-match hangs, or any context where a laced sneaker adds friction you don't need, that distinction is real. At $120 for a collaborative special edition, Nike and KOI are clearly after cultural reach as much as margin. Further details on the exact release date and retail channels have not yet been announced.