Nike Air Force 1

In 1982 Nike introduced their first basketball shoes utilising their successful Nike Air technology. The shoes were called Nike Air Force as a reference to the Air Force One plane of the POTUS. The model was discontinued 2 years later but re-released back in 1986 as the Nike Air Force 1 and became especially populair in the US East-coast Hip Hop scene. The Nike Air Force 1 is now over 40 years old, produced in three different heights and popular as ever, specially the “White-on-White” version.

The most recent pair of Nike Air Force 1 that I got were a pair of Nike Air Force 1 High ’07 LV8 in full beige suede. LV8 in the models designation is a play on “elevate” for the slightly elevated soles in comparison to the regular ’07 models.

Nike Air Max 90

In 1987 another sneaker with a different design was released, also utilizing the Nike Air technology. The third edition of this design, released in 1990 and baptized Nike Air Max III. From 2000 onwards, this shoe became know as the Nike Air Max 90 and I have owned several black-on-black pairs since then.

NIKE BY YOU

Now I wanted a new pair and decided on Nike Air Force 1 Mid ’07, that should be a little better for driving. But browsing for shoes I came across the NIKE BY YOU program. Here you can design your own sneakers, that sounded like fun (and hey, I was drawing sneakers all the time in the eighties).

After a little fiddling with the online editor; I decided to pay homage to my Sepang Blue colored Black Edition Audi.
When a purely Black & Old Royal Blue scheme turned out a little too boring, the Nike swoosh became Sport Red for contrast in the final design. The Tip (front) and Foxing (heel) are differently colored to give a bit of a ‘racing shoes’ feeling (but who would actually race with basketball shoes ?!).
Production and delivery took a couple of weeks during which regular and fun updates were received by email … well done Nike!

And finally a few shots of the homage Nikes with the Sepang Blue ‘Black Edition’ Audi.