Nike, Nike App Only, Author, SP24’
Writer, The Origins of the Air Max 1
Brief: Write an article that gives the consumer context on how the Air Max 1 came to life
Process: Huge thank you to Ellie Friedman for bringing this opportunity to me! Also to Ben Zhang for connecting us. I was tasked with writing a history of the Air Max 1 and how to came to life. I did some research beforehand & there were so many articles already out on Air Max 1 on different sites and they all bored me. I felt like someone was giving me a history lesson instead of telling me a story.
I knew I wanted the article to read like a chapter in a story. It had to have a protagonist, a climax, a breakthrough, an evolution of character. Tinker Hatfield was that character since he designed the shoe originally in the 90s. I found some amazing videos of Tinker talking about how he made the shoe from the D.N.A (department of Nike archives) team. I started asking myself why would make me wanna read this as a kid?
It wasn’t about a detailed breakdown of the innovation, that already existed, it would be a come-up story. I researched a lot on what I wanted to include and Ellie helped me a lot with trimming it down. I started asking myself, how can a kid understand what the hell Air is in a shoe? That thought comes to life in the ‘Think of an air bag like a trampoline’. I was like hell yeah, anyone can understand what that feels like. I wanted to bring the innovation to life in an easy way for any reader at any age.
The building that inspired Tinker to put Air Technology on the outside of the shoe, The Georges Pompidou Centre, I went to on accident when I was in Paris in 2018. I was getting a crepe since I’m cultured and walked to it and was like wow this shit looks crazy. So it was cool to see it again, because I had pictures of it when I visited Paris. The last sentence is my favorite, ‘Tinker Hatfield would later cement himself as one of the greatest shoe designers in the world.’. Thank you to everyone who brought this article to help.
Words by Afnan Altimimi
Nike Brand Creative
