July 31st, 2012 by Aaron Hope
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We’ve chronicled Nike Basketball’s trip back through the past twenty years over these past couple weeks and today we encounter the design that’s made more of an impact on the last few years than any other on the list. The Nike Air Foamposite One debuted in 1997 after a product meeting with Penny Hardaway left the star of the Air Max Penny 1 and II with absolute certainty that “This [was his] next shoe!” In fact, the Air Foamposite One was a Penny 2.5 of sorts, heavily influencing the III and taking cues from the wavy-lined predecessors, and the recent rise in all things Penny has seen these rise to the top as (along with the Pro edition) arguably the most collectible model released over the past three or so years. Click through to see more classic photos and promo materials as well as some insights from designer Eric Avar and stick with Sneaker News as we continue to examine the greatest Nike Basketball designs of all-time.
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July 27th, 2012 by Aaron Hope
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Today’s chapter in the Nike Basketball history book is a discussion of one of many models that makes 1995-96 arguably the best season on record, but this story has its nexus somewhere between the 1992 Air Raid and Air Max2 CB ’94 posts that preceded it. Draft Day ’93 introduced the entire world to Anfernee ‘Penny’ Hardaway, a brilliant oversized point guard from the then-relatively unheralded University of Memphis. It was on June 30th of that year that the Orlando Magic traded the rights to #1 pick Chris Webber of Michigan Fab Five (and Air Flight Huarache) fame, cementing Penny’s return from a gunshot that just two years earlier had jeopardized his entire career.
Webber went on to win that season’s Rookie of the Year award, but in Hardaway, Orlando had a once-a-generation talent who would become the face of the franchise and arguably the most successful Nike signature athlete of the mid-to-late ’90s not named ‘Michael Jordan’. After a couple of playoff appearances including the 1995 NBA Finals run and a rocking bunch of notable styles like the Air Flight One, Air Go LWP and Air Up, Eric Avar laced Penny with a groundbreaking design that foreshadowed changes to come in the Beaverton B-Ball division.
The Nike Air Max Penny (1) debuted around the start of the ’95-96 season with a style that defied the Flight and Force conventions, foreshadowed Foamposite with its prominent, wavy midsole and helped to launch the Uptempo line for a new generation of explosive perimeter players. The Air Max Penny also furthered Hardaway’s connection to the then ‘Tensile Air’ that first appeared on the AF One, paving the way for the explosion of Zoom Air that’s still one of the Swoosh’s premier cushioning platforms. Introducing the Chris Rock-voiced Lil Penny marionette along with the unveiling of Penny’s ’1c’ logo pushed this design over the top, and made for another memorable classic that has us excited to see what will be the next chapter on Monday?
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July 24th, 2012 by Aaron Hope
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Following up on yesterday’s debut, we see the next entrant in Nike Basketball’s ’20 Years’ retrospective pick up right where the Air Force 180 Low left off. That model commonly linked to Charles Barkley could be seen as the first step in Nike embracing the ’90s attitude, and here we see more evidence of Tinker Hatfield’s impeccable timing. Hatfield and assistant Eric Avar saw basketball shorts getting longer, and following the 1980s arms race that had court kicks higher and heavier than ever before, it was simply time for a change. The Nike Air Flight Huarache came onto the scene in 1992 with a neck-breaking ankle cutout to highlight its exoskeletal construction, and their connection to notable ballers of the time including the infamous ‘Fab 5′ Michigan Wolverines makes these an all-time classic. Click through for some words from Tinker himself and a rundown of the OG colorways, and stick with Sneaker News for the next milestone in two decades of Nike Basketball brilliance.
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May 15th, 2012 by John K.
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Of the lengthy sneaker-design process, the Wear-Test stage is a make-or-break affair; it doesn’t matter if the shoe looks amazing – if it doesn’t perform to the standards of the athlete, it’s back to the drawing board for the design crew. Of course, a lot of elements from a sneaker’s predecessor is carried on, but when looking at the progress of Kobe V to VI, the most notable change is the enlarged heel-cup – perhaps Kobe needed a bit more stability in that area for when he makes his daring cuts sand drives to the hoop. This Wear-Test sample of the Nike Zoom Kobe VI shows the sneaker free of any structural support – just the snake-skin TPU shell and the stencil-pained Swoosh on the upper, and the a solid one-piece midsole without the design ridges and the heel Zoom chamber. With the minimalistic appeal of this sample, the Kobe VI almost looks like a funky lifestyle shoe rather than one that was made on court, but credit Eric Avar for bringing street style and basketball sense into one cohesive unit. A gallery awaits you below, so take a look and cop this sample now from identitiesrevealed on eBay.
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January 13th, 2012 by John K.
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“The system and the way I perform – they go hand in hand.” – Kobe Bryant
There’s a lot of science and engineering behind the Kobe System. With the interchangeable cushioning insoles, the Kobe VII truly adapts to the game of the player, and as Kobe Bryant demonstrates the abilities and advantages of the Attack Fast option, you can truly comprehend that the Kobe VII is unlike any other sneaker created. Eric Avar, who designed the Zoom Kobe VII, further details the structural components of the sneaker, emphasizing the different Zoom Air units in the insole which collectively provide Kobe with a ‘Fast’ approach to the game. Check out the video of the Shoe Science behind the Attack Fast system and get your Kobe VII in stores today.
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