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Nike Air Force 1
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NIKE AIR FORCE 1, A TIMELESS CLASSIC
The Nike Air Force 1 is without doubt the most emblematic silhouette at Nike. This model is one of the first to use soles fitted with the Nike AIRcushioning system, still new and revolutionary when it came out. It was in fact the first basketball shoe to carry that technology. Created by Bruce Kilgore in 1982, this pair is a clever mix of restraint and technical skill. With its immaculate white design, set off by a swoosh and a grey strap on the mid and high versions, its outsole comes in light grey tones. Legend has it that its style was inspired by the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris. Its name is a direct reference to the American presidential aircraft. The Air Force 1 has a particular history that makes it one of the most iconic models of sneakers. Nike unveiled the model and brought it to a wide public in the 80s by pairing it with the greatest basketball players of the day.
But after only two years on the market and immediate success, the American brand decided to pull the famous pair from sale. That had the effect of creating a genuine wave of demand. Young people in the neighbourhoods, desperate, tried with difficulty to bring their old pairs back to life. Shoe shop managers, seeing the strong demand, then started putting pressure on the American brand to bring back copies of the much sought-after model. The brand with the swoosh eventually agreed, on condition that the orders were substantial. The pairs sold at an incredible speed, creating a unique connection between the Air Force 1 and the young people of the streets.
A TRAINER SHAPED BY STREETWEAR AND HIP-HOP
With the rise of street and hip-hop culture in the 1990s and 2000s, the popularity of this pair went through the roof.
It was street culture and the explosion of rap in the 90s that pushed the pair to the rank of classic. It turned up on the feet of the most influential rappers, such as Jay-Z, Kanye West, creator of the essential label Yeezy , and Damon Dash , who went mad for it. As an aside, the rapper Nelly fell in love with the model and, to show that love, dedicated a song to it entitled “ Air Force Ones ”. In the same way T.I, the Atlanta rapper, brought out a track called “ My Air Forces ”. In the documentary by Thibaut de Longeville published recently on the Nike SNKRSapp, T.I even went so far as to say that “he would not wear another model for anything in the world”.
In the following years the model even crossed the Atlantic and took root in Europe, with London as its capital, and its new rappers who would spread the model and its values across the continent. Today reworked on many occasions, as recently with the Off-White Blackversion, the Air Force 1 keeps writing its history and confirms its status as an icon.
ICONIC AIR FORCE ONE COLLABORATIONS: OFF-WHITE, TRAVIS SCOTT, CLOT, PEACEMINUSONE
Nike Air Force 1 Low
As always Nike gives great importance to the history and the world of its shoes. Sold at $62.95 in 1983, a year after the launch of the High, it quickly became an emblematic product of hip-hop culture. Nicknamed the “Uptown” in the streets of New York, it soon became an icon of the city's working-class neighbourhoods thanks to how accessible it was. In 1984, two years after its release, Nike planned to stop production of the AF1, but thanks to enthusiastic fans in Baltimore and the “Color of the Month Club”, a group of local retailers, the AF1 survived. So the American firm gives artists, athletes and designers who grew up with the silhouette the chance to rethink the models. Every collaboration is a genuine mood, the creator's art brought to the fore. Over the years emblematic collaborations have come to light. As part of his collection The Ten, the late Virgil Abloh, artistic director of the menswear collections at Louis Vuitton, put his mark on 10 emblematic models from the brand with the Swoosh to create the range Nike Off White. Among them, the Nike Air Force 1 Off-White. Playing on innovative materials, as with a transparent fabric, Virgil Abloh brings a deconstructed dimension with a swoosh and its zigzag stitching. Available in 3 colours, White, Black and Volt, this sneaker is a must-have much sought after by sneaker fans. The most influential rapper on the planet, Travis Scott , has also reworked the Nike Air Force 1 three times. After working on two canvas AF1s in White and Sail with an interchangeable swoosh , the Flame gave us a magnificent Nike AF1 Fossil. Playing on material panels and motifs recalling his world, this sneaker thrilled basketball fans with its box packed with details. A pair that once again sold out very quickly, like all those in the Nike Travis Scottcollection. We can also mention the Hong Kong label of Edison Chen, Clot , which gave us 4 colourways of its Nike Air Force 1 Clot in white, blue, black and recently pink. Featuring a satin upper embroidered with the brand's motif, this sneaker carries a print applied directly to the pair, revealed once the fabric is removed. Extremely limited, this collaboration marked the year 2019. To finish, we can also talk about the Nike Air Force 1 Peacemisunone in collaboration with the Korean artist G-DRAGON. The K-pop singer reworks the classic in his own way with a floral print hidden under the uppers of the Black and White colourways. This original and surprising edition managed to make a lot of noise and won many people over to Korean fashion. Nike keeps dazzling us with its collaborations and has managed to establish the Nike Air Force One as the timeless classic model.
Nike Air Force 1 Mid
It was not until 1994 that Nike introduced a new iteration, the Air Force One Mid. In terms of design, it is considered a hybrid model and sits between the High and the Low with its mid collar covering the bottom of the ankle. It was unveiled in the Nike advert “City Attack”, which put forward the different branches of urban culture, embodied notably by Bobbito Garcia, DJ and streetball player who recently collaborated on a shoe as an NFT. The whole campaign, nicknamed NYC , is built around the different activities found in the many neighbourhoods of New York. The slogan came with a string of new releases from the Beaverton brand, such as the Jewel Swoosh, the Dunk Low “Flip The Old School” and the Nike Air Force 1 Mid Jewel , which would introduce the NYC Logo. The latter was in fact reissued in 2021. A genuine success on television, its influence would even cross the Atlantic and win over the European public in 1994 thanks to Foot Locker opening in Paris and London. It is thanks to the Air Force One Mid that Europe got to know the silhouette, more than ten years after its creation. The trainers were so popular that in 1997 an “Independance Day” edition appeared. Inspired by the “4th of July”, the American national holiday celebrating the independence of the United States, it was reissued during 2022 alongside the Air Force 1 Mid “Ale Brown”. The American brand notably called on various designers to collaborate on its Mid model. The most emblematic is without doubt Riccardo Tisci, former artistic director of Givenchy and former creative director of Burberry. In 2014 he gave us his collection “Nike + RT”, which reworked 4 versions of the Air Force One from a luxury angle for men and women.
Nike Air Force 1 High
This is the first model to have been unveiled, in 1982, and it was sold at $80. Its name is inspired by the famous aircraft used by the President of the United States and echoes the AIR technology hidden under the insole, which would bring better cushioning for basketballplayers. That air bubble was a genuine innovation for the time. It made its mark thanks to Nike's wish to suggest that with this model, trainer fans would be capable of spectacular leaps. To promote the shoes, the brand with the Swoosh called on six NBA players for the campaign around the Air Force One: Moses Malone, Michael Cooper, Jamaal Wilkes, Bobby Jones, Mychal Thompson, and Calvin Natt. At the start, Nike only wanted to run the model for two years and move on to something else, but the shoe met with such success that three shop managers from Baltimore begged the brand to supply them with AF1s given the cultural impact and the demand from enthusiasts. The Beaverton firm then imposed a minimum of 1,200 pairs sold for the three shops: Downtown Locker Room, Cinderella Shoes, and Charley Rudo's Sports. The shoes for men and women sold like hot cakes and AF1 fans from all over the United States made the trip to Baltimore to get the trainers from the Color of the Month pack. The three managers of those emblematic shops were in fact nicknamed the “Three Amigos”.
Today it is through the vision of Matthew Williams, artistic director of the house of Givenchy, that the model has found new life. His label Alyx Studio has collaborated with Nike to give us four Air Force One High fitted with premium full-grain leather, including the Red and the Black. For its 40 years in 2022, the retro silhouette was brought up to date with the Air Force One High Sculpt , which takes up the OG codes of the shoe but without its emblematic strap at the ankle. It comes in the colourways White Silver and Gym Red.
Nike Air Force 1 Flyknit
In 2012, Nike launched the Flyknittechnology, amaterial made of strong, light threads woven onto an upper, giving good support for the athlete's foot on the platform of the shoe. It uses ultra-resistant fibres to create light structures offering zones of support, stretch and breathability, as with the Nike Flyknit Racer. It was not until 2015 and the legendary Kobe Bryant that the first model of Nike Air Force 1 Flyknit appeared, worn by the emblematic Los Angeles Lakers player in its mythical Triple White colourway during a trip to China. What followed was unprecedented hype around the reworked design by Bruce Kilgore. Released in 2016, it came in several colourways emblematic of the brand with the Swoosh, such as the Multi-Color, Bred and Oreo. It was sold at $110 for the Low versions and $175 for the Highversions.
A trainer as loved by women as by men.
Although the essence of the model comes from famous male icons in sport or music, the shoe was quickly adopted by women and the teams at Nike understood that well. The Triple White model is today an essential of many women's wardrobes and turns out to be a unisex sneaker. To meet the strong demand from women trainer fans, the brand with the Swoosh would offer a multitude of reworked versions of the emblematic model, with ranges created especially for women such as the Air Force 1 Shadow collection and the Air Force 1 Pixelcollection. Feminine and colourful, these special models give an on-trend look to the retro model. From pastel colourways to decorative jewels, everything is designed to meet the expectations of women sneakerheads.
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