Designer Tinker Hatfield changed the shoe game forever in 1987. Striving to give runners a better understanding of the breakthrough innovation that made his company’s the most well-cushioned sneakers on the market, Hatfield created the now legendary Air Max – the first shoe to feature Nike’s iconic Visible Air technology.
But it wasn’t as easy as Hatfield and David Forland, Nike’s Director of Footwear Innovation, made it appear by debuting the Air Max. The road to Visible Air was one that began two years earlier when Forland joined the Nike team, shortly after which he began tinkering with Air-Sole prototypes he’d made by hand.
He stumbled upon a critical moment in visible air history when he rotated the bag, placing the seams on the top and bottom instead of on the perimeter. “At that exact moment the light bulb turned on,” Forland says. “I built a new prototype right there on the spot.”
Decades of similar ingenuity is what carried the Air Max line to its current perch on top of the sneaker world. In addition to stylistic changes both subtle and aggressive that mark each new edition, Nike continues improving Air-Sole units as the technology to do so immediately becomes available.
The Air Max 1 debuted the cushioning system in the heel.
Eliminating foam between the outsole and Air-Sole unit created space for increased air volume, an innovation contained in the Air Max 180 – a sneaker released only four years after its original version.
“The idea was much easier said than done,” Forland says. “The Air Max 180 was one of the most difficult Air Max sneakers to create.”
The subsequent creation of blow molding allowed for Air-Soles in 3-D shapes that didn’t depend on pressure and specifically curved to align with the foot. A system debuted with the Air Max 93 eventually came full circle two years later, when Nike included Air-Soles in the forefoot for the legendary Air Max 95.
Taking full advantage of the ability for a full-length Air-Sole first featured in the Air Max 1997, Nike has continued breaking old and creating new boundaries for the sneaker world with each subsequent release of the Air Max.
Forland and his team achieved their goal of a foam-less, 360-degree Air-Sole system with the Air Max 360 in 2006, just over 20 years after he created the Air-Sole prototype by hand. But Nike wasn’t done, and turned its attention from eliminating foam to increasing flexibility in the world’s most responsive sneaker.
The result? Air Max 2015.
Almost three full decades following Forland’s initial pursuit of Air-Sole technology, it could be argued that Nike has mastered the craft. If his ambition is any indication, though, its safe to say the leading provider of athletic apparel will continue finding ways to improve one of its most timeless products.
“I remember the first blow-molded Air-Sole unit,” Forland recalls. “We worked so hard on that and had no idea if people would embrace it. I was at an airport right around the time the first Air Max sneaker launched. I was calling a tech in the lab when someone walked by wearing a pair. I stared at him from the phone booth and said, ‘Somebody bought them. I see the Air-Sole going up and down.’ It was a big risk, but bigger reward.
“For the Air Max family,” he says, “it’s only up from here.”
And we can’t wait to see where that unstoppable ascent takes Air Max next.
[NIKE]
