What shoes are you wearing now? Is it Nike? If so, you must have heard of Air technology. It is a little air bubble in your midsole which makes shoes extremely comfortable. Of course you have, so how did Nike Air become so popular?
The Air technology was invented in 1977 by former NASA scientist M. Frank Rudy. He used an old NASA technique called blow rubber molding that could create heel cushions using trapped gas within clear plastic. This was clearly a cool technology, but during Nike’s first visit, they planned on refusing the technology. However, after hearing that Adidas rejected the offer, they accepted Mr. Rudy’s offer in order to become different from Adidas. The first shoes that had this innovative air technology was the Nike Air Tailwind in 1978 which was released as a performance running shoe.
The popular shoe has transformed many times and evolved using different names and brands. The Air technology was not as popular as it was when it was first released, but in 1985 Michael Jordan created the first Air Jordans which boosted Nike’s sales to another level. In 1985, Converse was one of the most popular basketball shoes, but then Air Jordan 1 revealed the Air technology to the basketball world. The technology mixed with the design achieved over 100 million dollars in sales that year. The next evolution was when the Air Max 1 was released in 1987, which is one of my favorites, and was first designed with the air cushions exposed as part of the design.
Whether you are wearing Jordans, Yeezys, Force, Max, Foamposite, Zoom or VaporMax, they all have the famous “Air” in front of their name. This simple technology allowed Nike to make billions of dollars and change the culture of shoes.