story

"My name is Jae Lyu. I'm a footwear color and material designer at Nike. Hey, I'm Frank Brittain. I'm a graphic designer for footwear at Nike."

"This is the Nike Air Max 1 'Blueprint'. Air Max 1 was a perfect canvas for this project. This shoe originally was introduced as a running shoe, and this changed the world."

"What is better to celebrate it with the 35th year of the Air Max 1 with the 'Blueprint' story that relates back to the original inspiration, the Tinker Hatfield himself, the architect?"

"This is our origin story through the narrative of a 'Blueprint'. I mean, this story couldn't be told on a better model, because this was the origin. This was the blueprint of the whole Air Max franchise. This is what started it all."

"So the 'Blueprint' story is based on drafting paper narrative. So it starts with kind of like the origins of footwear design and also industrial design and architecture, which is Tinker's background."

"So we wanted to just sort of harness the origins of the groundwork that needs to be laid in the form of a sketch and a technical drawing to build up into an actual shoe that's manufacture-able."

"And not only that, but is kind of the groundwork of a whole legacy of Air Max to be built on top of it. When this shoe first came out, there was an ad with the lights behind it, showing that this technology is brand new."

"It's showing the airbag that, when people thought, "Wow, that's crazy. How did you do that? It's just going to change the world.". And it did. And that iconic image we wanted to be represented on this shoe."

"So if you put this shoe with the light behind it to mimic the original '87 ad, there's a hidden detail that we put. So the outsole itself is glow in the dark and also the airbag is glow in the dark as well. My..."

"...background is a graphic designer and illustrator comes to life in this shoe through the details about the drafting process. We have special lace tips on the model that are similar to the drafting pencils that are used."

"The sock liner for the model tells the story of how the Air Max kind of comes from Beaverton, Oregon at the Nike Headquarters. But it's also bigger than that and explodes out into to the whole world."

"The Swoosh on the lateral side is actually a rub-off material and the color changes once you start wearing them out. Adding your own little flare and your own story to the shoe is kind of brings it into that next chapter."

"Storytelling on sneakers is really important and that's kind of what makes each shoe unique is that it's rooted in a story. Just like how Tinker was inspired by his surroundings, hopefully this shoe can inspire the new generation."

"While designing this Air Max 1, we wanted to make sure to be inclusive by involving the community, not only just in North America, but the world over. And we think it's really important that young creatives feel inspired by our products, but also to contribute to the process."

"It gets really fresh if the kids are getting involved and they want to be inspired to be the next Tinker and to bring the next generation of Air Max to life."

"We invite all creatives to create the next generation of Air Maxes."

Behind The Design

Air Max 1 'Blueprint'