About

Nike Air Max: the cushioning Nike finally let you see

Nike had the air unit for years, and nobody could see it. On the Air Force it sits buried in the sole, invisible and taken on faith. In 1987 Tinker Hatfield cut a window into that sole, and that single decision grew into a whole series.

The idea came from a building

Hatfield took his cue from the Centre Pompidou in Paris, where the pipes, ducts and escalators hang on the outside of the building instead of tucked away inside. What normally stays hidden becomes the face of the thing. He ran the same inversion through the Air Max 1: the cushioning you used to take on trust, you could suddenly see sitting there.

Every generation cut the window wider

What followed is the run of models on this page. The Air Max 90 made the window bigger and framed it. The Air Max 95 was the first to put visible air in the forefoot too, flipping the build so the darkest tones sat down low. The Air Max 97 ran the chamber the full length of the shoe. The Air Max Plus added molded ribs to hold that chamber in shape, and the Air Max 270 stacked a heel made almost entirely of air.

Why it keeps working

Most sports shoes sell you a promise you cannot check. Air Max shows the proof, and that is exactly why the line has run for nearly forty years and owns its own holiday every March 26. One monster, a new skin every generation.

Choose by generation, not by name

The words Air Max tell you very little about what you are getting, because the gaps between generations run wide: in height, in the shape of the chamber, in how much air you actually see. Walk the models on this page and look at the sole, because the difference lives down there.

On this page you can see which versions of the Nike Air Max are running hottest right now according to the Hypescore, from what price they’re available, and how many shops have them in stock.