Last Monday on March 26, Nike held the 35th anniversary of the release of its inaugural Nike Air Max shoe. The first Air Max Day was held 4 years ago in 2014. It was a genius marketing move by Nike to get the sneaker community excited about new releases by reminiscing about past releases. In 2015, Nike held a Vote Back campaign, which let people decide which shoe to bring back for reissue. Then, Nike switched to holding a Vote Forward competition and put up a dozen unique designs by 12 creatives called “Revolutionairs” for the public to vote. Sean Wotherspoon’s design ended up winning and went into production for this year’s celebration.
Sean Wotherspoon, founder of the consignment store Round Two, won last year’s Vote Forward competition to design the next Air Max shoe. His love of vintage shoes and apparel, his native Virginia and LA, and favorite shoe models influenced the design. People around the world voted on their favorite design and Sean Wotherspoon’s innovative design came out on top. Out of the dozen shoe renderings that emerged from the competition, Sean Wotherspoon’s design caught my eye instantly. The Sean Wotherspoon Nike Air Max 1/97 is a clean hybrid design that combines the sole unit of the Air Max 1 and the upper of the Air Max 97. The corduroy colorway completes the look of one of the best shoes of the year. The pastel colors remind me of Easter, fitting given the time of year. Other features are small Swoosh branding, corduroy pull tabs, smiley face on the insoles, interchangeable tongue patches, “VA -> LA” embroidery on the heel (a reference to Wotherspoon’s hometown of Richmond, Virginia and then eventual move to Los Angeles, California), and four lace options.
Initially released on November 21, 2017, these shoes were part of an official general release on Air Max Day. Nike also released a plain white T-shirt with puffy prints and a multicolored corduroy hat. Somehow, I was not able to get my hands on a pair even after entering multiple raffles and trying to purchase online manually. So far, I have never won anything on the notoriously difficult Nike SNKRS app. I am still thinking about getting one for resell because prices have stabilized at $550. The ones with accessories such as extra laces and patches are going for approximately $650. It is especially amusing to see these shoes for sale at Round Two since Sean is in effect creating and then reselling his own sneaker. Nike is gradually turning me into an Air Max fan and these shoes are obviously a must have in any Air Max fan’s collection so I am tempted to make the purchase.
Other releases include the Air Max 270 (featuring Nike’s biggest heel bag yet), Air VaporMax 2.0 (updated Nike flyknit upper), Air VaporMax Plus (combines design lines of Air Max 98, Air Max Plus, and air sole of VaporMax), Air VaporMax 97 (combines Air Max 97 upper with full-length Air-Sole unit of the Air VaporMax), Air Max 180 (featuring 180 degrees of visible Air cushioning), and Air Max 93. In addition to these, atmos, a sneaker boutique established in New York City, and Nike teamed up for a re-release of their “Animal” Pack, originally from 2006. The Air Max 95 and Air Max 1 were covered in exotic animal prints, such as the zebra and leopard.
To continue with Nike’s theme of supporting the choices of the public, Nike is holding an “On Air” sneaker design workshop from March 22 to April 15 in cites such as NYC, London, Paris, Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo. Participants will go through the 5 stages of designing a sneaker: concept development, silhouette selection, material exploration, color exploration, and embellishment. Then they will submit their designs to a judging panel, which will select 3 designs from each city and put it to a global vote. The winning design from each city will go into production in the future. Hopefully, a design as revolutionary as Sean Wotherspoon’s shoe comes out of the NYC area so that I could finally represent my city.
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