Overview
- A Vatican-produced teaser for Leone a Roma includes a brief shot of Pope Leo XIV walking in white Nike sneakers with a black Swoosh visible.
- Sneaker sleuths, led by Ben Serlith of JustFreshKicks, identified the pair as the Nike Franchise Low Plus, a little-known tennis model from the 1970s and 1980s that returned in 2008.
- Screenshots raced across social media with memes and jokes like “Holy Drip,” and a Reddit post featuring the image drew tens of thousands of upvotes.
- Reports note a jump in asking prices on resale sites after the clip spread, even though used pairs of the model have historically sold for about $20 to $50 and remain hard to find.
- The footage appears archival and its exact date is unclear, and the Vatican trailer marking his first year as pope also fed talk about the Chicago-born pontiff’s relatable public style.