Nike Air Max DN review

Follow the trend and join the Air Max DN hype if you're looking for:

• A popular pair of sneakers that everyone is wearing nowadays, from elite athletes like Sha'Carri or Rafa Nadal, to artists like Billie Eilish or Drake.
• A comfortable and durable shoe to rock even in the hottest summers.
• Sneakers that boost your height, confidence, and style.
• Something lightweight but full of high-quality materials.

With how incredibly popular the Air Max DN has become, finding a pair is not an easy task. Everyone wants to get their hands on them, and we can see why! This allrounder is unique, but the Nike Air Max collection has many other models that might be worth checking out.

Despite its runner appearance, this Nike pair is definitely not a performance shoe! It's alright if you run in it to catch the bus or stuff like that, though. However, it's not made for running: we found it too unstable! But don't worry, Nike has many running shoes that are perfect if you feel sporty! Among those, the legendary Pegasus collection has incredibly comfortable and versatile models. Having a look at them is always a good idea!

Alright, it's finally time to talk about the star of the show! But before that, let us tell you that our caliper returned the crazy figure of 40.3 mm when we measured the heel stack of the Air Max DN.

If you want that extra height boost, this is your shoe!

So, according to Nike, these sneakers feature a Dynamic Air unit system of dual-pressure tubes, which consists of 2 sets that offer firmer pressure in the heel and softer towards the midfoot. This supposed "next generation" design reminded us a lot of the Nike Air Max Plus!

In our opinion, it looks absolutely stunning. It feels like a mix of a futuristic and a retro style with this almost fully visible technology. However, when we walked with the Air Max DN around town... we didn't actually feel all that softness the brand was talking about.

Yeah, we did feel a little bit of bounce, but nothing that we'd label as soft. In fact, this shoe felt rather firm at the heel! This doesn't mean that it was uncomfortable on foot or stuff like that, we undoubtedly enjoyed wearing it during our wear tests. However, if you're expecting Nike's "this feels like a cloud" foam, this ain't it!

Despite the 24.5 mm of forefoot stack, this shoe's toe area felt closer to the ground than the heel.

As you can see in the picture, it doesn't have any brand technologies. We can't say we didn't expect it to, though, as the brand talked about "a smooth transition as you step" in this shoe's description.

Still, it felt comfortable and it wasn't hard to walk in at all! The Air technology moved alongside our feet, but as we said, it's nothing like the cloud-like feel of other Nike sneakers.

With that massive heel stack, we expected nothing but a huge drop. And that's exactly what we got.

At 15.8 mm, it's pretty clear that this shoe's heel is way higher than the forefoot. But don't worry, this doesn't mean that your feet will have to get used to a new structure or anything like that!

In case you want to know a little bit more about the heel-to-toe drop, here you have our guide on the topic.

In this section, we're going to explain why the durometer's result in the lab and how we felt walking around with this shoe are completely different.

For a start, our gadget returned 21.8 HA when we pressed it against the Air Max DN's midsole. This score means it's softer than average. More specifically, a whole 25%!

We want to clarify that, in our experience, this shoe feels comfortable. That's for sure! But we noticed it was softer at the ball of the foot than at the heel. We believe this is because of the Air Max units, which offered a firmer feel to our heel despite the softness of the foam used throughout the whole footbed.

Nike didn't want to get things complicated and went for a simple 4.0 mm thick insole, which is thinner than average.

There's nothing special about it, so let's move on to the next section!

We grabbed our caliper once again to check this shoe's toebox width at the widest part.

It marked 101.8 mm, which means these kicks are wider than average! They offered our standard-width feet just the right amount of space to rest comfortably.

As soon as we measured the Air Max DN's toebox width at the big toe, we started nodding in agreement.

Our caliper stated its width goes all the way up to 79.2 mm, which is a lot! And, trust us, a lot but in the best way possible.

Additionally, the tip features a rubberized toe-bumper protective layer and a slightly rockered design to make transitions feel easier. Nike, you've reached the top with this one!

Its spacious toebox let our toes relax and enjoy every step of the way during our wear tests. They could spread happily and comfortably, which is something we really appreciated when we had to spend long hours wearing this shoe!

But don't worry, its fit is true to size.

Even though this shoe's lateral stability is pretty good, we don't think you should use it specifically for running.

As you can see, the high-quality and durable materials of this pair hold our feet in place. Nevertheless, its heel stack is undoubtedly more unstable than any other sneakers that are designed to be closer to the ground!

When we took this Nike pair to our lab and tried to make it bow to us, it pretty much refused.

Its big midsole stood in the way, but it was mainly the gray piece (in this colorway) with the Swoosh the one that wouldn't let us bend this shoe. This stiff bridge between the forefoot and the rearfoot acts like a shank that adds some extra support, which explains why we couldn't really twist this Air Max.

Consequently, we have decided it deserves a 4/5 on our torsional rigidity test.

The heel counter followed the same path scoring another 4/5 on our stiffness test.

As you can see in the video, the sides of the shoe collar are softer, but when we move our thumb to the Achilles area, things start getting serious. This toughie features an external heel counter that made sure our rearfoot stayed right where it should during our wear tests.

This zone is pretty padded, just like other key points of the shoe to make it even more comfortable. What we liked the most about this design choice is that Nike also went for thin yet resistant material layers in the upper to offer a healthy mix of wonderful breathability and durability.

Our caliper opened wide to measure this shoe's midsole width in the forefoot!

At 111.1 mm, these Nikes feature a spacious midsole that let our feet land comfortably after every toe-off during our wear tests walking around town.

Our caliper returned 87.8 mm when we measured this shoe's midsole width in the heel, which is also wider than average.

This just added some extra space, which translated into a very comfy stride!

Bending this shoe all the way up to 90 degrees was not hard at all! We did expect so, though. During our wear tests, it moved comfortably alongside our feet!

At 20.4N, we loved how pliable this Air Max is! The best part is that its upper is durable, which is usually associated with rigid and tough materials (and it does have them, though, despite being a comfortable shoe), but it bends easily at the ball of the foot. Which is crucial to walk comfortably from the very first minute!

We can't say you forget you're wearing this shoe when you're walking around, but it did feel pretty lightweight to us! We wanted to see if our feet and our scale agreed, so we decided to bring this Nike pair back to the lab and check it out.

At 13.1 oz/370.0g, the Air Max DN is definitely on the light side of sneakers. More specifically, it's a whole 6% lighter than average.

Our legs didn't get tired even after walking for hours around town, and its breathable design let us enjoy it even when it was pretty hot!

During our wear tests, our feet felt pretty happy with the Air Max DN even if the temperatures were a bit high. Its mesh upper just gave that away from the very first moment we had this shoe on our hands, but we want to give you all the information we can.

First of all, our light test. As you can see in the video, our light shines brightly through this Nike's upper despite its multilayered mesh.

Second, our smoke test. It's pretty clear that this shoe didn't have any problems letting the air come in and out. Its toebox does a perfect job and we can see a thick and constant smoke column throughout the whole 10 seconds of our test. We were really happy with this result, which looks all the more impressive with the poor Nike Blazer Mid 77 by its side (as it couldn't get more than a 1/5 on our breathability test).

And third, our beloved microscope. In the close-up we can see a nicely woven mesh and some plastic and very thin overlayers.

In conclusion, we have decided to give the Air Max DN a wonderful 5/5 on our breathability test, the highest grade of all!

After scoring a perfect victory on our breathability test, we were actually a bit scared to get our Dremel and start this war. But there's no turning back now!

The 5 seconds of drilling felt like a soft breeze to the Air Max DN. Trust us, we were just as surprised as you are! We looked at the damage left for a while, but it was hard to spot.

The 3.2N of force and 5K RPM meant nothing to this Nike pair, so we decided it clearly deserves a 5/5 on our toebox durability score. Another A+!

We usually mention how the heel padding is the weakest area of a shoe. But, you know, after the wonderful performance (so far) that the Air Max DN is giving us, we don't know what's coming!

The 4 seconds of drilling at 5K RPM and with 3.2N of force didn't matter all that much to this Nike pair.

The heel's material got a bit messy, but that's literally it. No big deal! After seeing this great result, we decided to give the Air Max DN a well-deserved 4/5 on our heel padding durability test.

We put the shoe upside down and pressed our durometer against its outsole to check its hardness.

It returned 82.4 HC, which is just slightly lower than average. This result means that the Air Max DN offers a great mix of durability and grip, but we'll talk about that on their respectively corresponding sections!

This new Air Max model is doing really, really well so far! But our Dremel had one last chance to prove its strength.

Attacking the outsole during 22 seconds, and this time at 10K RPM and with 3.2N of force, we saw rubber dust flying around. No kidding, we actually closed our eyes for a second after putting the tool aside!

But when we grabbed our tread gauge, we saw the dent was only 0.6 mm deep! That's actually an incredibly good result. It shows this shoe is ready to last, and we could actually tell so: the Nike Air Max DN is a display of what designing something with great care looks like.

We actually had to close our caliper a lot to be able to measure this shoe's outsole thickness. Or should we say thinness?

At 3.1 mm, the brand went for a narrow piece of rubber to protect this Nike's bottom. Which just makes sense after seeing and verifying how durable the material is!

Nike's waffle outsole never disappoints, and guess who's featuring it? (Drums, please). Exactly, our Air Max DN!

As you can see, the brand's iconic tread pattern is in the forefoot, and its grip was fantastic. The rearfoot has a wavy design in the middle, separating a bigger waffle pattern on both sides.

The red circles mark where the Air technology is, and we loved the color-blocking touch! As we were saying, we're pretty happy with this shoe's overall traction. It bit every urban surface, and it's fully covered by rubber, which makes it fairly durable!

As we verified in our lab, this Nike pair doesn't have any reflective elements.

A fluffy and puffy tongue made sure our instep was as comfortable as it needed.

According to our caliper, that chunk goes all the way up to 13.7 mm, which is more than average.

Apart from the comfort, what we really liked about this design choice is the back that the tongue imitates the bubbles of the Air Max unit. The space between the round sections accommodated the laces comfortably.

Oh! And obviously, you can forget about lace bite with this Nike pair!

The heel tab is nowhere to be found but, in exchange, we have literally the coolest logo ever.

Look at that! Apart from giving some extra structure to the heel area, we believe this retro touch made the Air Max DN even more stylish.

We're very happy to announce that this shoe has a removable insole!

If you've read any of our other reviews, you might already know that we really like this feature. But it's even better in this case! Why? Well, do you remember we felt the Air Max DN kind of stiff at the heel? If you change its insole and use a cushy orthotic instead, the problem should be solved!