April 19, 2017

Nike Air Max Turns 30 With Designer Shoes and Bold Fashions

It was 1987 when the world first, err, ran into the Nike Air Max. The original was by Tinker Hatfield, actually an architect who started at Nike designing stores but eventually segued into sneakers (he’s now the company’s vice president of special projects and design).

For the 30th anniversary of the Nike Air Max and the launch of the VaporMax sneakers, NikeLab collaborated with fashion-school students on experimental garments like this polyester one by Paula Cánovas of Central Saint Martins, London. Photography courtesy of Nike.

But to celebrate the shoe’s 30th anniversary, NikeLab, the division that collaborates with outside innovators, turned to names big and small. Arthur Huang, Marc Newson, and Riccardo Tisci each contributed designs.

Another initiative, Vision-Airs: Experiments in Style, tapped students from top fashion schools—Central Saint Martins, Domus Academy, and Parsons School of Design—to envision garments that interpret the latest Air Max: the VaporMax, the lightest, most cushioned and flexible model to date. The creation by Paula Cánovas, who’s earning a master’s in fashion, was quite high-minded: “Even though I’m a textile designer, I like 3-D—fabrics that create shape,” she says, “this in particular referencing sculptor Lars Englund.”

> See more from the April 2017 issue of Interior Design

VaporMax design by Liam Johnson from Central Saint Martins. Photography courtesy of Nike.

VaporMax design by Azar Rajabi from Domus Academy in Milan. Photography courtesy of Nike.

VaporMax design by Shizhe He from Parsons School of Design in New York. Photography courtesy of Nike.

VaporMax design by Wanbing Huang from Central Saint Martins Photography courtesy of Nike.Photography courtesy of Nike.

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