Nike Air Max

Rudy was an aerospace engineer when he met with Nike in 1977 to pitch his idea for encapsulated air as a cushioning mechanism in an athletic shoe. A skeptical Phil Knight, co-founder of what was then a fledgling company, took a prototype out for a run and was convinced.

Nike Air was born.

Revealing the real

The revolutionary system debuted in the Nike Air Tailwind running shoe at the Honolulu Marathon in 1978 before Nike expanded it into the basketball realm with the Air Force 1 in 1982.

But all the while, we couldn’t see what was cushioning our feet. That all changed with Nike’s “Air Revolution” in 1987. That’s when the brainchild of architect-turned-designer Tinker Hatfield was released to the world. Drawing upon his inspiration of the Centre Pompidou, a vast public library in Paris designed to reveal all of its inner workings to the outside world, Hatfield thought about how such a concept could translate to sneakers.

So he designed a small window under the heel that revealed the Air pocket that had been hidden away for nearly 10 years. And the Air Max was off and running.

Max options

So popular was the OG Air Max that a lineage was formed; one that often drew upon natural elements for some of the most memorable silhouettes in sneaker culture.

The Air Max 95 features an upper that is modeled after the human spine with lacing that resembles sinews and muscle fiber.

The wavy upper of the Air Max 97 is reminiscent of the concentric circles in a pond that has suddenly been disrupted by an outside force – a style befitting the entire Air Max line.

The Air Max Plus (1998), with an upper inspired by the waving palms of a Florida beach, ushered in Tuned Air. This modification to Air Max created channels by which Air cushioning could adjust to your every step.

More recent editions include the Air Max 270, which reveals the Max Air cushioning from both sides and from behind – 270 degrees of visibility – and the Air Max 2090, which blends the chunky sole of the Air Max 90 with modern touches such as the heel-pull lacing system.

Whichever direction you go with your Air Max look, you can finish it off with an Air Max-themed T-shirt, coaches-style jacket, shorts, and even bike shorts. Check out sizes for men, women, and kids.