City of Perth to hand out free Nike Air Max sneakers

[Ogletree]

Maybe it’s not surprising that in those early days, nike huarache ultra breathe crossed paths with NASA; at that time, just about every new invention seemed to trace itself back to the Apollo missions somehow. Nike Air was no exception.


Nike was ready for a boost by the end of the ‘70s. The company enjoyed explosive success after its endorsement of record-smashing distance runner Steve Prefontaine and the release of the famous Waffle Trainer–for which Bowerman developed the sole by pouring rubber into his wife’s waffle maker. Then, in 1978, Nike revealed the next big thing: the Air Tailwind.

First produced for the Honolulu Marathon, the nike huarache homme pas cher included new technology developed by former NASA engineer M. Frank Rudy. Rudy’s innovation repurposed an aeronautics technique called blow rubber molding. It was once used to create astronaut helmets for the Apollo missions and later enabled Rudy to design a hollowed-out midsole in which he embedded polyurethane pouches filled with dense gases.

Rudy patented the design in 1979. The idea—as well as the branding strategy—hinged upon the assumption that running on air would provide superior cushioning, since the sacks of gas wouldn’t wear out after repeated use. Nike Air was initially marketed to elite runners, though that strategy shifted over time to include anyone with $100 or more to spend on sneakers.


In the beginning, consumers had to trust nike air max pas cher femme on this air-cushioning claim, as the Nike Air technology was invisible in the original Tailwind shoes. One could ostensibly tear the shoe apart to find it hiding above the patented Waffle outsole, but it would be a few more years before Nike would put its new trick on display.

Nike Air Max and Profitable Transparency

By the greedy ‘80s, the Air Force 1 and original Air Jordan sneakers had taken over the world of basketball. Nike had also cultivated its image as an edgy brand—so much so that after the NBA banned the original Air Jordans for not meeting its coloring guidelines, Nike actually paid Michael Jordan’s fines as long as he kept wearing them on the court. But the company continued to innovate and take Nike Air technology to new levels.

Nike became a billion dollar company in 1986, around the same time that it was putting the finishing touches on a massive upgrade to its line of air-cushioned shoes. The following year, the company released the nike air max thea femme running shoe, featuring a much larger air pouch and a little window into the cushion on the side of the heel.

This involved a little bit of reengineering. What had been a thin, foot-shaped container for the air cushion would be redesigned to resemble a squished Klingon starship, the edges of which held the visible air. In the middle, there was a beefy pouch with supports for primary cushioning. This concept would become a defining brand for Nike, especially in terms of establishing the company’s superiority in technology-driven design. The air wasn’t just visible either; you could poke the packet of gas and feel the bounce.


Air Max shoes put the technology on display without offering too many clues about how it worked. (It’s honestly just a polyurethane pouch filled with inert gas.) That simplicity remained key to the overall design. The original Nike Air Max I, designed by the now-legendary Air Max maestro Tinker Haven Hatfield, established a formula that would help Nike bring in billions of dollars in the decade after it was introduced.


Suddenly, sneakers felt a little bit less like slabs of foam and rubber that you strapped to your feet and more like a gadget that made you a better athlete. Hatfield even said that the design of Air Max was inspired by the Pompidou Center in Paris, a nod to its legendary architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. Indeed, the technology made sneakers look futuristic. As to whether or not Air Max shoes delivered on that performance promise is a subject of great debate.

A Quick Family History of Air Max and Its Offspring

For the purposes of this history, I’ll focus on the running shoes since the Nike Air technology was originally built for competitive track athletes. It’s also important to emphasize how Nike marketed the extra cushioning as a good thing for all runners. This claim has proved to be rather dubious in recent years. Experts say shoe companies like Nike are to blame.

“Part of the problem is the shoe industry as a whole does a really horrible job of matching footwear to feet,” physical therapist and biomechanics expert Jay Dicharry, told The Atlantic last year. “All the methods used to fit feet to shoes don’t really hold up as valid ways to classify runners and to match shoes.”

Along those lines, the main thrust of nike presto femme pas cher innovation boiled down to the grand American ideal that more means better. This philosophy is wonderfully expressed in the now iconic Air Max ads from the 1990s. Even the aesthetic of simple black text on stark white backgrounds emphasizes that simple but bold formula. You can see this Madison Avenue tradition as far back as the Mad Men-era Volkswagen ads and continues to this day with pretty much every Apple ad in the past ten years.