“Basic” has become an insult, or something to return to when you’ve made a mistake. In British political circles, the phrase “back to basics” will probably illicit a smirk, recalling an ill-fated campaign in the early 1990s when various backbenchers had a completely different, if perhaps more accurate, interpretation of Victorian values. As ever, former basketball player Mr Michael Jordan knows the score. “Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise,” he once said.

Below are two new releases that take a stripped-back approach to sneakers, which are themselves anything but stripped back. Sacai’s supermarket sweep through Nike’s archives has produced some striking shoes, but the latest version of the VaporWaffle, in a simple white colourway, plays to this model’s excess of details. Likewise, a restrained take on the Yeezy 500 makes the most of Mr Kanye West’s celestial silhouette. The outlier here is Nike’s new Dunk Low, although a jumble of primary tones seemingly repurposed from children’s television suggests another way of mastering the essentials.

From Stüssy’s cherry flavour to Ben & Jerry’s ice cream-inspired iteration, some of the most sought-after editions of Nike’s much-loved skate shoe have been good enough to eat. The latest Dunk falls into this group and comes in a clutch of colours that nod to the local shop’s pick ’n’ mix, an association that the neon Free 99 tag on the insole does little to dispel. Also available with a black base, the white version is the one we’re sweet on. Popping candy it is.

“Come up in the spot looking extra fly/ ’Fore the day I die, I’ma touch the sky,” Mr Kanye West once sang. Sneakers that look like clouds is a good first step. For those setting foot in the stratosphere, the 500’s Adiprene platform supplies suitably floaty support. Certain to sell out, to get a pair you best be nimble, not to mention cumulonimbus.

Sacai designer Ms Chitose Abe’s latest take on Nike’s archive is The Grey Album of the sneaker world. Like Danger Mouse’s Jay-Z and Beatles mash-up, it’s a bootleg that transcends its source material. To say that this edition presents the shoe in its purest form is perhaps a moot point, but it certainly is easier to wrap your head around without the contrasting colours to confuse matters further. Already overloaded with details, this crisp off-white-on-white colourway presents the opportunity to take it all in.