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 26th, 2012 by Aaron Hope
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As Nike Basketball continues its look back over twenty years of game changing designs, we’re reminded that the Air Jordan Legacy could have filled up half of the list (or perhaps one of its own). We see the connections to MJ in Tinker and company’s Air Flight Huarache and Air Raid designs and now with the pair pictured above, the other half of these features have focused on a key early ’90s rival. After he won a gold at Barcelona ’92 in the Air Force 180, Hall of Fame power forward Charles Barkley turned in his finest season and met up with MJ in the 1993 Finals. An MVP-level effort wasn’t enough for Sir Charles to capture that first championship, so Beaverton went back to the drawing board to create a product that perfectly married, in Hatfield’s words: “The outlandishness of Charles’ persona and the beauty of the product”
The Nike Air Max2 CB (’94) reflected Chuck’s rebellious persona thanks to designer Tracy Teague having the kind of freedom of expression to which Barkley alluded in his infamous ‘Role Model’ ad. Accordingly, the AM2 CB is an imposingly aggressive design equipped to handle sudden outbursts as the Round Mound of Rebound continued to play above his size. Features like straitjacket-inspired lockdown straps, reinforced ghillie lacing and a ferocious, toothy midsole made this design so memorable it was recently resurrected as the basis for Nike Sportswear’s Air Max Barkley, but longtime fans and collectors recognize the original style as irreplaceable. Check out some of the early sketches and OG colorways after the jump below, let us know where Charles Barkley ranks in the pantheon of great signature ballers and stick with Sneaker News as we examine twenty years of bold basketball design.
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July 25th, 2012 by Aaron Hope
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Nike Basketball continues its march toward the London Olympics and the Dream Team 20th anniversary with another look at a classic design that changed the game. That the Nike Air Raid is the third such entrant from 1992 is an indication of how prolific the Swoosh and particularly designer Tinker Hatfield were that year. And just like Hatfield’s Air Flight Huarache became associated with the Michigan Wolverines, his work with longtime associate Mark Smith on the Air Raid’s X-strapped streetball sensibility came about at a time when multiple cultural movements converged to create a perfect storm. Click through to see the TM of HTM’s sketches, how the Air Raid was built from the ground up to add durability without sacrificing comfort and let us know where this iconic streetball sneaker ranks on your list of the all-time great Nike Basketball styles.
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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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July 23rd, 2012 by John K.
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Since 1992, Nike Basketball has created an endless library of masterpieces that perfectly blended art, design, and function using world-class technology and engineering. Over the next twenty days leading up to the 2012 Olympic Basketball Semi-Final, Nike Basketball will revisit twenty awe-inspiring pairs selected from the last two decades in a mini-feature titled ‘20 Designs The Changed The Game‘, and it begins today with the Nike Air Force 180 Low. The Nike Air Force 180 Low was introduced in 1992 and was built for the ground-and-pound aspect of basketball and made for players like Charles Barkley in mind. Boasting 50% more Air than any other Nike Air shoe, the Air Force 180 Low was a key player in Nike’s game-changing journey. Continue on for a look at this vintage classic and stay tuned for the next chapter.
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July 20th, 2012 by John K.
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Nike Basketball has been playing around with a game of one-upsmanship with itself over the last two decades, redefining the perfect basketball shoe with heroic innovations and audacious designs. It’s been an entertaining and lengthy tale of Nike outdoing Nike, and from 1992 with the original 180-degree Air Unit to 2012′s revolutionary Nike Hyperdunk Sport Pack, Nike has served up twenty iconic basketball models that changed the game and rerouted the future paths of all that encapsulated basketball footwear. With 2012 serving as the 20th Anniversary of the original USA Olympic Dream Team, Nike has plans of celebrating the last two decades by re-telling twenty scintillating stories of Nike Basketball; you may not realize that Nike already began this crusade with the celebrated releases of the Nike Air Force 180, Air More Uptempo, Shox BB4, and Huarache 2K4, but prepare yourself for a history lesson that no brand has ever attempted before.
Beginning this Monday, July 23rd, Nike Basketball will reintroduce one iconic model a day up until the 2012 Olympic Basketball Semi-Finals on August 11th. You heard that correctly; twenty game-changing and court-busting models will see the spotlight again, like Aaron Cooper’s Nike Air Zoom Ultraflight of 2003, a supremely light-weight shoe that featured a unique clear outer shell and a synthetic stretch leather, and 2006′s Air Max 360 BB, which served as a precursor to the full-length Max Air unit seen on several top-shelf Basketball sneakers (LeBrons, for example) of the last few years. This is just a small helping of what’s to come, and our recap of the Nike Basketball Showcase from the World Basketball Festival may give you some hints at what may potentially arise, so stay tuned to Sneaker News for all the updates of this incredible recital of Nike Basketball heritage and get the discussion going on this amazing development by letting us know what classic models of the last 20 years you’d love to see.
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