Browsing the "Eric Avar" Tag
November 29th, 2012 by John K.
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Over the last eight years, Kobe Bryant has grown to create an unbreakable legacy with Nike, pushing the limits of design, innovation, and style. Starting from the Air Zoom Kobe 1 in 2006 to the Kobe 8, the evolutionary process of the Kobe has been quite clear – lighter, faster, more versatile – and the Nike Kobe 8 System continues that concept, continuing the structure widely praised low-cut construction while infusing some fresh technology – namely the full-length LunarLon outsole and the all-new Engineered Mesh. Engineered Mesh provides 360-degree breathability while allowing the shoe to bend freely and naturally with the foot, while the LunarLon cushioning with the one-millimeter thick outsole keeps Kobe low to the ground for the ultimate in court-feel and maneuverability.
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August 9th, 2012 by Aaron Hope
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Upon seeing yesterday’s look back at the original Hyperdunk’s role in the past twenty years of Nike Basketball innovation, one Sneaker News reader predicted that the next model we’d see would be its peer in the performance roundball arena, the Zoom Hyperfuse. It’s a reasonable guess given the chronology, but also overlooks a model that, while using some of the same technologies that debuted on the Hyperdunk, has been arguably even more potent in its influence. The Nike Zoom Kobe IV is the result of designer Eric Avar (the man behind more of these ’20 Years…’ styles than any other) realizing Kobe Bryant’s desire for “the lowest, lightest weight basketball shoe [they] can make.” The Zoom Kobe 4 set its sights on soccer for a new generation of lowcut basketball sneakers, released in a huge range of colorways that’s since become the norm, was the first Nike Basketball signature with NIKEiD custom options from day one and marked the Black Mamba’s first Shaq-less championship. Click through to read more about the Kobe line’s defining formula, let us know your opinion on its place in history as well as lowtop b-ball shoes in general, and stick with Sneaker News as we inch toward the finish line on this Swoosh roundball retrospective.
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August 8th, 2012 by Aaron Hope
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Team USA will face Australia in its first tournament game of the London Olympics in just a short time, the same team they trounced in the 2008 quarterfinal round by thirty-one points. This squad often being called simply the ‘New Dream Team’ redeemed USA Basketball four years ago, their renewed commitment echoed by Nike Basketball’s revelation of a game-changing performance machine that’s still the standard to which modern basketball sneakers are compared. The Nike Hyperdunk is yet another example of Eric Avar leading an innovative new project to fruition, its use of Flywire and LunarLite technologies so futuristic, it was only natural to include a Nike Mag-like heel counter (and that legendary ‘Marty McFly’ debut edition). Click through to see sketches that represent the epicenter of a shift from which we’re still feeling the aftershocks and stick with Sneaker News as we approach the right-end of the timeline on this Swoosh roundball retrospective.
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August 6th, 2012 by Aaron Hope
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Nike Basketball’s trip back through the past twenty years sees its first ‘retro’ entry today, as a dozen years after the list kicked off with Tinker Hatfield and Eric Avar’s Air Flight Huarache, the latter applied the functional versatility of its timeless design to a new project that defied classification into the Force, Flight or Uptempo schools. The Nike Air Zoom Huarache 2K4 was part of Avar’s quest to return to a more ‘grounded’ product after nearly a decade of creating the most memorable and expressive designs the sneaker world had ever seen. It simultaneously served as a transition into the Kobe Bryant signature era, celebrated college hoops with the March debut and offered NIKEiD options right out of the gate, and to this day maintains a reputation as one of if not the single most comfortable roundball designs of the new millennium. Check out a huge array of Air Zoom Huarache 2K4 sketches after the jump and stick with Sneaker News for the next milestone.
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August 5th, 2012 by John K.
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Building off the successful Zoom platform of 2001′s Hyperflight, Aaron Cooper and Eric Avar set out to re-create the Hyperflight’s performance while incorporating an aesthetic element of “half tradition, half amazing”. Thus came the Nike Zoom Ultraflight in 2003, which seamlessly combined the luxurious feel of premium leather with a tech-driven translucent shell that exposed all the inner workings of the shoe – an idea form when Cooper and Avar visited a sporting goods store in New York City. This created the task of building a styish inner bootie now that the inner elements were completely exposed, and the finish product, of course, was another game-changer in Nike Basketball history. More of 2003′s Nike Zoom Ultraflight below, so take a look and read up on all of Nike Basketball: 1992-2012 if you need to catch up.
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August 3rd, 2012 by Aaron Hope
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Sneaker News has followed Nike Basketball back through the first half of its examination of the past twenty years, and after Tinker Hatfield’s name rang out through the first week, this second go-round has been dominated by another legendary designer. But even with all the success of the Air Penny 1, Air Foamposite One, Flightposite and Shox BB4, Eric Avar looked to Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman for inspiration on the 2001 flagship release. The Nike Air Hyperflight was a response to the question with which Bowerman met Avar in product meetings over the years: “Can you make it lighter?” Click through to see the sketches that show the transition from the rocket-infused BB4 into a new era of synthetics and bold colorways and stick with Sneaker News for the second half of this series next week.
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August 2nd, 2012 by Aaron Hope
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Any serious sneakerhead could tell you of Tinker Hatfield’s immense influence on sneaker design and the first few entries in Nike Basketball’s 20 year retrospective echoed this fact. As we follow time forward into the middle ’90s, another legendary designer makes his name starting with Penny Hardaway and the revolutionary Foamposite line, then continues to build his star along with the new generation of freakishly athletic roundball stars. Eric Avar‘s 2000 Nike Shox BB4 was itself the culmination of two decades of research, a shoe whose core theme could finally be realized thanks to the invention of improved foam fabrication. The BB4′s unique ‘rocket and booster’ appearance proved Avar’s opinion that “every shoe should have one bold, iconic expression to it [and] sometimes you can get away with two,” and will forever be remembered as the shoe that made Fred Weis famous (did you get the ‘Dream Team’ pack retros?). Click through to see more of Vince Carter’s Shox debut, let us know how they compare to the other milestone designs we’ve chronicled and stick with Sneaker News as we continue to chronicle Nike Basketball’s best on this side of the millennium.
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August 1st, 2012 by Aaron Hope
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After a fairly thorough excavation of the legendary 1995-96 season and its immediate followups, Nike Basketball continues its journey through the past two decades of excellence with the spiritual successor to yesterday’s entrant. ’97′s Air Foamposite One set the bar with a then-record $170 MSRP and a design that remains ‘futuristic’ to this day, and two years later, Foamposite lead designer Eric Avar leveraged the technology to “create a seamless extension of your body.” The Nike Air Flightposite was born two years later with a sleeker design inspired by classical anatomy drawings and a unique zipper enclosure that made it one of the smoothest basketball shoes ever created. Click through to see more photos, sketches and words from the designer (conspicuous by a complete absence of Kevin Garnett references) and stick with Sneaker News for tomorrow’s look back over 20 years of Nike Basketball brilliance.
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