Nike has unveiled limited-edition Air Max trainers designed by Marc Newson, Riccardo Tisci and Arthur Huang to celebrate the shoes’ 30th anniversary. Over the years, a range of collaborators, from fine artists to couture designers, have opened new imaginative apertures for Air. Their visions of the Nike Air Max line have thus inspired fresh perspectives as well as reaffirmed the essential power of Air Max: It’s not a shoe, it’s a platform for future exploration.
Now, with the 30th anniversary of Air Max on the horizon, NikeLab highlights visionaries representing architecture, design, style and art to reimagine Nike Air. Marc Newson, Riccardo Tisci and Arthur Huang — each a leader in their respective field — elevate aspects of different Air Max icons, from the Air Max 1 to the all-new Nike Air VaporMax, in their own distinctive ways.
NikeLab and industrial design icon Marc Newson join forces to distill the essence of industrial craft and technology. The result is a combination of Newson’s cultured aesthetic and Nike’s future-forward technologies — FlyKnit and Air VaporMax. — yielding a lightweight, uniquely elegant new silhouette. Inspired by traditional moccasin construction, Newson’s vision of Air Max joins a full-grain leather chassis and Velcro strap frame to pre-molded Nike Flyknit sockliner with a striking cross-stitch. A TPU cupsole bonds the upper to the breakthrough Nike VaporMax Air unit, allowing the shoe a lightweight and responsive underfoot feel.
Fashion legend Riccardo Tisci channels his unmistakable aesthetic through the legendary ‘90s icon that shaped Italian footwear culture. The updated Nike Air Max 97 gets an elevated mid-cut that draws simultaneously from Tisci’s Italian couture influences and streetstyle background. A concealed zip pocket on the tongue gives the shoe some added functionality, while a translucent milky white outsole creates a stunning contrast with the runway-inspired tumbled synthetic leather and synthetic suede underlays of the upper. To finish it off, foil accents and embossed logos update the OG tooling.
Featuring new tooling and materials, the NikeLab Air Max 1 Ultra 2.0 x Arthur Huang is among the lightest Air Max 1 ever built. Honoring the idea of encapsulated innovation, Miniwiz CEO and architect Arthur Huang has created a lightweight package made entirely of post-consumer materials, complementing the Air Max and helping to both spark the imagination and redefine the possibilities of modern manufacture.
all images courtesy of Nike