About

Nike Air Max

Nike had the air chamber for years, but nobody could see it. On the Air Force it’s tucked away in the sole, invisible and taken on trust. In 1987 Tinker Hatfield decided to cut a hole in it, and that one decision became the entire line.

The idea came from a building

Hatfield drew his inspiration from the Centre Pompidou in Paris, where the pipes, ducts and escalators hang on the outside of the building instead of inside. What is normally hidden becomes the face there. He applied that same inversion to the Air Max 1: the cushioning you used to have to believe in, you could suddenly see.

Each generation cut the window wider

What followed is the line you’ll find on this page. The Air Max 90 made the window bigger and framed it. The Air Max 95 was the first to also show visible air in the forefoot and reversed the layering, with the darkest tones at the bottom. The Air Max 97 carried the chamber the full length. The Air Max Plus added plastic ribs to hold the chamber in shape, and the Air Max 270 put a heel on it that is almost entirely air.

Why this keeps working

Most sports shoes sell a promise you can’t verify. Air Max shows the proof, and that’s exactly why the line has lasted nearly forty years and has its own holiday every year on March 26. One monster, always a new skin.

Choose by generation, not by name

The name Air Max says little about what you get, because the differences between generations are large: in height, in the shape of the chamber and in how much air you actually see. Walk the models and look at the sole, because that’s where the distinction is.

On this page you can see which versions from the Nike Air Max family are currently hottest according to the Hypescore, from what price they can be found and in how many shops they are in stock.