Nike Air Max

Nike Air Max is a line of shoes first released by Nike, Inc. in 1987. The shoe was originally designed by Tinker Hatfield, who started out working for Nike as an architect designing shops; he also designed many of the Air Jordan models.

Overview

The Nike Air Max shoe uses a large air cushioning unit at the heel which is visible from the side of the midsole in most models. Types of Air Max cushioning include:

History

Models include:

Nike Air Yeezy

The Nike Air Yeezy is an official sneaker collaboration project between Nike and Kanye West.

Notable as the shoe brand's first non-athlete full collaboration, the project has released two editions: the "Air Yeezy" (2009) and the "Air Yeezy II" (2012 and 2014).

Design process

The Nike Air Yeezy, named for Kanye West’s "Yeezy" nickname, was developed from 2007 to 2009 by rapper Kanye West and Nike Creative Director Mark Smith. Despite later qualms with Nike, Kanye has spoken very highly of Smith as both a collaborator and designer, and Smith has said the same of Kanye, stating that he is "a truly creative talent" and a "natural designer."

The design process for the Nike Air Yeezy was long and features dozens of sample colorways and silhouettes. The early prototype of the Air Yeezy had many features that greatly differ from the release version of the shoe. For instance, the midsole and outsole featured what the shoe’s creators referred to as "Death Star" tooling, named for the large spherical shape on the back half of the midsole. The outsole also featured the "Y-print" that was used on the toebox of the three release versions. Also, on the very early prototypes, the shoe used LED lights implanted in the outsole, but after issues with low battery life and cost evaluation, production staff at Nike came to the conclusion that phosphorescent rubber would be used in place of the LED lights.