Public School NY is back, and one of the shoes helping mark the return is nearly as old as Nike itself.

For its Spring/Summer 2027 presentation, Dao-Yi Chow and Maxwell Osborne showed a new version of Nike’s Moon Shoe—the ultra-thin, waffle-soled runner that helped establish Nike’s earliest design language. Public School’s version keeps the stripped-down profile intact, adding a ripstop Swoosh and a metal O-ring at the heel. A retail release has not yet been confirmed.

The Moon Shoe traces back to Bill Bowerman’s experiments in the early 1970s, when he poured urethane into his wife’s waffle iron while searching for a lighter outsole with better traction.

Early versions were worn by runners at the 1972 U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene. Their waffle-patterned footprints resembled marks on the lunar surface, giving the prototype its nickname. The shoe itself never received a broad commercial release, but its sole became the foundation for models like the Oregon Waffle and, eventually, the Waffle Trainer that helped turn Nike into a running company.

Nike finally brought the Moon Shoe back into regular circulation in modernized form, preserving the nylon upper, large Swoosh and remarkably simple construction.

Public School itself returned to the runway in 2026 after a long hiatus, with Chow and Osborne describing the break as an opportunity to reconsider what the brand should be rather than simply restart what had existed before. Their recent work has reconnected the label with Nike through projects including a modified Air Max Goadome.

Now they are reaching much further back.

Not to one of Nike’s most recognizable basketball shoes or a sneaker already carrying enormous resale mythology, but to one of the company’s earliest experiments.