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By Aaron Hope · Published Apr 20th, 2009
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Though several Air Trainer IIIs have dropped this year, its older sibling hasn’t appeared in quite a while. This new Nike SB Air Trainer TW II breaks the streak in grand style. Featuring a simple black and grey construction, these are made anything but boring with light pink touches strewn about. No word yet on a stateside release, but they’re available now from Choko.
Nike SB Air Trainer TW II – Black – Pink
Nike SB Air Trainer TW II – Black – Pink
Nike SB Air Trainer TW II – Black – Pink
Nike SB Air Trainer TW II – Black – Pink
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BELOW ARE THE CURRENT LISTINGS FOR THESE KICKS ON EBAY:
[If kicks below are a random assortment, desired kicks are not currently available on eBay.]
8 Responses to “Nike SB Air Trainer TW II – Black – Pink”
April 20th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
dont really see the point in making these if they got the black/reflective silver ones especially with the pink…
April 20th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP
In the same article you’ve called this the Air Trainer TW II, in the heading, and the Air Trainer II TW, in the body. Those are two different things. One of them does not exist.
TW means Totally Washable (I’m not kidding). So you’ve basically referred to two possible models:
(1) the Air Trainer II Totally Washable – which would mean a totally washable version of the Air Trainer II
(2) the Air Trainer Totally Washable II – which would mean the second version of the Air Trainer Totally Washable.
So which of these is correct? It’s number two because number 1 CANNOT EXIST. Why can’t it exist? Because there never was an Air Trainer II, totally washable or otherwise.
“But”, you ask, “if there is an Air Trainer III there must be an Air Trainer II right?”
No! Because THERE IS NO AIR TRAINER III.
This confusing conundrum is no doubt why you mistakenly mixed the TW and the II around in the body and then made the jump to calling this the “older sibling” of the Air Trainer III. You were expecting an Air Trainer II and it seems to fit the look.
“But”, you exclaim, “there IS an Air Trainer III”.
I know, I know. Let me explain.
There was never an OG Air Trainer III in the 80s. There is only a RETRO shoe from this decade called Air Trainer III. Why?
Around 2000 Nike made a mistake. That mistake was releasing a retro shoe called the Air Trainer SC. Why was it a mistake? Because that shoe wasn’t just the Air Trainer SC. It was the Air Trainer SC 3. People usually just call them the Bo Jacksons. But there were THREE SC models and they were ALL worn and endorsed by Bo Jackson. The one retroed was the third model.
So Nike had retroed the Air Trainer SC III with the name Air Trainer SC. A couple of years later they decided to retro the ACTUAL Air Trainer SC, the SC1. What would they call it? There was already a retro shoe with just the name SC.
They should have admitted the mistake and released the SC 1 as the plain SC. Then the shoe already retroed as the SC should have been renamed the SC 3 for any future retros.
They chose instead to dig a deeper hole for themselves and retroed the Air Trainer SC 1 under the new name Air Trainer III, a name that had never previously existed.
It was a deeper hole because firstly because people didn’t realise it was the SC 1 and didn’t realise there was this family of three SC models. It hid the history and history is something that sells shoes. The more story there is behind a product the more likely it is to sell. It’s important that a company not forget the stories behind their products.
Secondly, people didn’t realise that there was no original Air Trainer III. So people started asking the obvious question: “What does the Air Trainer II look like?”. No one seemed to know, and for the good reason. It never existed either.
So let me summarise where we are before I tackle the shoe featured in this post.
Here are 4 original models (some come in high and low). Only 3 of these have been retroed.
(1) Air Trainer
(2) Air Trainer SC
(3) Air Trainer SC II
(4) Air Trainer SC III
These four models have been retroed as:
(1) Air Trainer 1
(2) Air Trainer III
(3) Not retroed yet
(4) Air Trainer SC
I was researching the old Trainers back in 2003 for an article for Sneaker Freaker Magazine when I discovered this mistake with the Air Trainer II and III. Through old catalogs of my own and other OG heads on Niketalk I pieced together most of the old family tree of Nike Trainers. My research had a few holes and a couple of pictures had their labels mixed up after I submitted it but it turned out pretty decent. You can read it in issue 3.
So I’ve written a lot so far on what doesn’t exist and what mistakes were made. It leaves the question “What is the shoe featured here?”
After Tinker gave us the Air Trainer in 1987, Nike decided to create a whole new product category expanding on the ideas behind them. This category was called Cross Training and it eventually outgrew the basketball category and was second only to running before losing some popularity from 1993 onwards.
With this expansion no future models would simply be called Air Trainer # because there would be a range of product lines that were all Air Trainers of different kinds. Each of these became it’s own numbered product line with roughly annual updates.
There was the Air Trainer SC line (3 models), the Air Trainer TW line (4 models, perhaps 5 in womens), the Air Cross Trainer line (6 models) and the Nike Cross Trainer line (no air units). These were all parallel lines satisfying various price points and niches.
Later there came the Air Trainer Max line (4 models originally), the Air Trainer Accel line, the Air Trainer Huarache line and more.
The Air Trainer SC Line
These were the top of the line trainers at the time. No one seems to have a definitive answer as to whether the SC in Trainer SC stands for Supreme Court as it does in the basketball and tennis categories.
Bo Jackson didn’t play a court sport professionally. However, the SC was to replace the previous top of the line trainer, the original Air Trainer. John McEnroe loved the Air Trainer 1 and played in them in the US Open. Nike may have had MacEnroe in mind when they named the new top of the range trainer the SC.
The first two SC models included a forefoot strap like the original Air Trainer. Later the SC 2 and 3 featured the web-tec technology which somewhat similar to fly-wire today. Strips of plastic tape ran up the side of the shoe in fey areas of structural support.
The Air Cross Trainer Line
This was the bread and butter of the line, just below the SC in terms of technology and design but still near the top.
The Cross Trainer Line
These were lower priced versions of the Air Cross Trainer, missing the air units and other bells and whistles.
The Air Trainer Max Line
After the 3 SC line ended Nike introduced two new top models. One was the Air Trainer E which was only produced for one year. The other was the Air Trainer Max which provided the best cushioning for larger athletes. Bo Jackson wore both of these in adverts and other promotional images.
The Air Trainer Max line became the last survivor of the original cross trainer lines in the mid 90s with the final model in 1995. The name was reused around 2000-2002 for one or two new models but they had no real connection to the previous Air Trainer Max models which were all high cut shoes with lateral outriggers. The new ones were more like running shoes.
The Air Trainer Huarache And Air Trainer Accel Lines
These were designed to be light weight with material removed where possible to leave only the essential structure. The Huaraches were revived a only few years ago with a new model after the Nike Basketball successfully bought the name back.
The Air Trainer TW / Air Trainer TW Lite / Air Trainer Lite Line
So, finally, to the line in question. These were a niche line of Totally Washable shoes that used different materials suitable for this purpose. They tended to have mesh sides on them as seen in the shoe featured above. They were all low cut and most featured a forefoot strap or later some other plastic forefoot reinforcement.
The name was changed after a few models to TW Lite as they were also positioned to fill the light weight trainer niche. Eventually the TW feature was ditched and the last model was simply the light weight trainer model. The Accel line was probably the replacement for these Lite models.
So the shoe featured above is Air Trainer TW II, the second of the niche Totally Washable line of trainers. It is not the Air Trainer II and it is not the older sibling of the Air Trainer III as neither of those shoes ever existed. In fact these shoes, the SC 1 and the TW 2 originally came out at the same time.
Well, if you’ve made it this far I hope that was not too hard to follow. There is a lot of information packed in there. It’s by no means a complete trainer history. It’s certainly likely to be one of the nerdiest things you’ve ever read. What can I say, I like sneakers and I like sets of things. :p
Thanks for reading.
April 20th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
^someone must love trainers
April 20th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
@elijah
My hat’s off to you, friend. Very informative and interesting stuff you’ve compiled here. Feel free to enlighten us any time you have a nugget like this . . . I always check the comments on my posts and this is easily my favorite so far
April 21st, 2009 at 12:20 am
SC = Signature Category originally.
Not sure if this still holds true with retro releases.
and Air Elijah, your post is is educational, entertaining and hilariously waaay more than anyone could’ve asked for or expected from a posted comment…but we’re all smarter now for it, so BIG THANKS!
April 21st, 2009 at 12:23 am
p.s. – The aforementioned Air Trainer SC II Mids (w/ the removable forefoot strap) and the original Air Cross Trainer Mids are LOOOOONG overdue on the retro schedule!!!
April 21st, 2009 at 12:34 am
p.p.s – here’s an ad (one of the best ever!) that provides some visual reference to air elijah’s “summary”:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250410248985&ssPageName=MERC_VIC_RCRX_Pr4_PcY_BID_IT&refitem=250375175237&itemcount=4&refwidgetloc=closed_view_item&usedrule1=CrossSell_LogicX&refwidgettype=cross_promot_widget&_trksid=p284.m183&_trkparms=algo%3DCRX%26its%3DS%252BI%26itu%3DUCI%252BSI%26otn%3D4
April 21st, 2009 at 2:32 am
Thanks guys. The trainer line has long been neglected by Nike. A lot of the top line models have been retroed but there is a lot of heat that has been forgotten. SC II tops that list.