| Address |
Year AF1 Created
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1982 | |
| NIKE Inc |
Website
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www.nike.com/af1/ | |
| 1 Bowerman Drive |
SC Rating
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8 | |
| Beaverton, OR 97005 | |||
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There are over 500 pairs of shoes in the categories below.
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Air Force 1 Low
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Air Force 1 Mid
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Air Force 1 High
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Air Force 1 PE/Rare
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Below you can view the shoes in the following years they released.
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1982-2003
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2004
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2005
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2006
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Air Force 1: The History of a Sports and Fashion Legend
Words by Charles Fox (AF1 Issue), Pros / Cons By Zac Dubasik
Whether you know them as Uptowns, Phatheads, Harlems, Dookies, Ones, Forces, AF1s or by their given name, odds are you have owned a pair of Nike Air Force 1 sneakers if you are reading this. What started out as an incredible showcase of 1970s and 1980s performance shoe technology has morphed into an absolute fashion and hip-hop icon over the past 25 years. What is so special about the Air Force 1? Why is it still so popular today, 25 years after its release and faced with stiff competition from the now popular Dunk as well as shoes from other brands?
The Air Force 1 was the first basketball shoe to feature Air, but not the first Nike shoe that can make that claim. In 1979, Nike’s Air technology debuted in the Tailwind running shoe. The needs of basketball players and runners from their shoes are very different, and the Air Force 1 filled those needs when it was designed in 1982. Bruce Kilgore, designer of the Air Force 1, explains the process of integrating Air technology into a basketball shoe for the first time; “A lot of our older styles of basketball shoes - the Bruin, the Franchise, etc. - have a much narrower heel base. Once we started to add Air cushioning to the shoe, we needed to broaden the base of support so it was stable. All of the previous attempts to incorporate a full-length Air-Sole unit into a basketball shoe ended up yielding a product that was too ‘poochy’ in a sense. It had the Air-Sole and the silhouette of a basketball shoe, but it simply wasn’t functional.” The shoe was a marked departure from any shoe that had preceded it. The first version to arrive was what many fans refer to as the “Air Force Zero,” a white and grey high-top. It featured a mesh mid-panel and nylon tongue, which made it more breathable and kept the weight down a bit, an un-perforated toebox and lots of padding. A removable Velcro strap around the ankle was a big help to players who desired more ankle support, and this was a technological breakthrough at the time although it may seem commonplace by contemporary standards. Bruce Kilgore explains the rationale behind adding the strap to the high-top Air Force 1; “To enhance the perception of ankle stability, we added the propioceptive belt. Some athletes liked it and some didn’t; that’s why it was removable. I didn’t want something that could be perceived as restrictive to be attached to the shoe.”
Air technology was not the only unique thing about the soles of Air Force 1s. Previous models of athletic shoes had the problem of “smiling,” or having the shoe’s upper separate from the sole after heavy wear. The Air Force 1 was made thicker and tougher to combat this problem. It was one of the earliest Nike basketball shoes to feature a midsole that was stitched to the upper. The outsole of the Air Force 1 was a new beast completely. This can be seen from the side as well as the bottom. Where as all of its predecessors sit very smooth and flat on the ground, the Air Force 1 outsole is a series of ridges as seen from the side. The bottom of the outsole was also revolutionary, featuring a radiating circular design that offered unparalleled traction for the time period and added great aesthetic detail to the overall look of the shoe. If one follows the lines of the circle on the outsole near the forefoot, it even appears that the line continues in the upper of the shoe, at the back of the toebox. Bruce Kilgore explains one way of viewing the AF1 outsole’s performance capabilities; “The first layer, or level, acts as a windshield wiper system in which the ‘blades’ wipe and clean the surface of the court so that the shoe hits the broad surface of the pivoting area and allows you to have good traction. No matter what direction you are going to strike off on a cut, the wiper blade system is always perpendicular to the angle of force. The idea was to expand the pivot point to the whole shoe.”
Around the time that the shoe released, there was a poster in typical 1980s Nike fashion and also a print ad for the Air Force 1s. The poster featured Moses Malone, Bobby Jones, Calvin Natt, Mychal Thompson, Michael Cooper and Jamaal Wilkes in space suit outfits and Air Force 1 highs, standing in front of an airplane. Bobby Jones recalls the experience of shooting the photograph for the poster; “We shot it at the John Wayne Airport in Orange County right at sunset, and most of us didn’t know each other real well…They gave us these weird-looking space suits.”
After the Zeros, Nike began producing the majority of Air Force 1s with perforated toeboxes and most models no longer featured the mesh midpanel. This is also when Nike began to get creative with the colors, moving beyond the rather conservative White/Grey colorway of the Zeros. The 1980s saw Nike use colors such as sky blue, royal blue, burgundy, brown and metallic silver on the Air Force 1, certainly setting the stage for the explosion of colorways that Nike was to use on the shoe in the 1990s and onward. The early 1980s also saw a few interesting player exclusive AF1s. Pairs from this time period in various colors have been seen with the “TYPS” markings that indicate a player sample. In addition, Yale University had an exclusive Air Force 1 that had “YALE” embroidered on the straps and Kevin McHale of the Boston Celtics had his last name embroidered on the straps of a white on forest green colorway.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Nike began to change more details about the Air Force 1. Most 1980s AF1s and some from the early 1990s feature what is basically a two piece upper. The back piece of leather, where the Swoosh begins on an AF1, was not a separate piece of leather in the “two piece” pairs. The shoes’ upper was basically one piece of leather, with the Swoosh and the toebox being the only pieces of leather stitched onto it besides the eyelet piece and the heel tab. Current AF1s and some older ones feature “three piece” construction, where the toebox, the midpanel and the back piece were all separate layers of leather. This also affected the lines of the shoe, as there was stitching where the “back piece” of leather ends on three piece pairs that was two sharp lines, whereas the three piece pairs feature a smoother, flowing line where the stitching was on the two piece pairs.
The 1990s and 2000s were the years when Nike really started playing with different materials and colors on the Air Force 1. Over the years, AF1s have popped up featuring materials such as faux snake and lizard skin, 3M reflective material, canvas, animal hair, nubuck, suede and many different types of leather, including different varieties of smooth, bumpy, patent and “Lux” pairs made in Italy. Crocodile and anaconda skin were even used 2007s Masterpiece AF1s. 1994-1996 were years in which Nike produced many different canvas colorways in low, mid and high variations. Nike made a big jump from producing basic colorways of the AF1 that contained one or two colors for so many years to producing wilder colorways in the 2000s such as the Carnival AF1s, Olympic AF1s and other recent patent leather pairs with many bright colors.
Today there are three versions of the Air Force 1, but this was not always the case. Originally, there were only high-tops and low-tops, and the mid-top was not developed until 1994. The lines of the AF1 high and low are fairly similar, but the lines near the back of the shoe on the mid vary greatly from the other two. The mid’s strap is not removable like the high-top’s straps. The first mids had the words “AF-1 MID” embroidered on the strap. At least four colorways exist with this wording on the strap. Subsequent pairs were to feature a backwards Swoosh, and around 1996/1997, Nike began producing the mids with a forward facing Swoosh on the strap. Although extremely popular with the general public and many collectors alike, some older collectors and purists denounce the AF1 Mid and do not consider it a true Air Force 1.
In 1996, Nike began releasing Air Force 1s with a smaller-sized Swoosh made of gummy rubber that seemed to pop off the side of the shoe just a bit, widely known as a Jewel Swoosh. They also released some Super Jewel colorways with metallic Jewel swooshes. Although extremely rare and highly coveted and sought after by collectors today, the Jewels were basically a flop at retail. Look back to Eastbay catalogs from the time period and you will see them marked down to half price.
Today, many Air Force 1s and other Nike models are produced with special logos and/or colorways to commemorate geographic locations, noteworthy people or special events. This was not always the case, and it began around 1995 when Nike first stitched the now well-known “NYC” logo onto a black and white AF1 high. Another of the earliest such special pairs was born when Nike produced a white and navy low-top Air Force 1 with “USA” embroidered on the heel tab and tongue in 1996. The 2000s saw the escalation of Nike’s “special makeup” production for AF1s, with innumerable special pairs seeing production. These countless collaborations, lasered editions, player exclusives and various limited and exclusive models have helped create and maintain the huge interest in the AF1.
On the flip side though, one of the crucial aspects of the Air Force 1s continuing success is the popularity and long-term production of all white and all black colorways. These simple renditions of the AF1 have become staples of footwear fashion for countless people, serving the role of a type of “default” shoe; many people would rather put on fresh black or white AF1s and a plain black or white t shirt instead of choosing more elaborate outfits. It is a simple, clean look that has never really left the hip-hop style scene although so many other trends have come and gone. All white AF1s are the perfect shoe for many rappers and other wealthy people, because they are very disposable to those who can afford to buy many pairs. Many rappers speak of wearing the shoes once or twice and then switching to a brand new pair. It is a symbol of freshness and crispness to have a brand new pair of white AF1s on for people with this mindset.
Over time, the Air Force 1 has been elevated above simple popularity and moved into an elite league of sneakers that truly never go out of style, and will seemingly be manufactured for as long as their respective shoe companies are in business. Shoes like this are not just footwear icons, they are iconic in wider-spread fashion and cultural senses as well.
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Pros and Cons
Pros of the Brand: The Air Force 1, to many people, is still the shoe of choice. Just like some people don’t like to leave the house without a pair of Jordans, Chucks or Shell Toes, AF1s have an incredibly loyal fanbase. Their design gives the shoe the ability to work in both understated as well as elaborate variations. Even though massive numbers of versions of AF1s have already been released, the shoe color blocks so well that’s its not hard to imagine countless numbers still to come. And while purists may tremble at the thought, the possibility of re-releasing some classic colorways excites many and has yet to be done on a large scale. It may be weird to say there is a lot of potential for an over 25-year-old product, but this is the AF1 after all.
Cons of the Brand: It seemed as if the AF1 could do no wrong for a period time. Its popularity was huge, and with the celebration of its 25th anniversary, it could have been taken even further. But rather than invigorate interest, the onslaught of releases in 2007 left fans and collectors feeling exhausted. For most, even if they could keep up with the, many times, multiple-pairs-a-week releases, they could only afford a fraction of them. Instead of having time to get excited about the next release, fans couldn’t even keep track of the ones they just missed. This led to many pairs sitting on shelves and going on sale – pairs that otherwise could have very easily sold out based on fans reactions to the colorways. The good news is that 2008’s releases have thankfully been scaled back, and fans seem to be responding well. Then there is the issue of quality. Many forum threads have been started in protest of the declining quality of materials used on AF1s, whos prices have inched up for even the most basic models. This has somewhat been addressed in the different tiers of releases, such as Premium and Supreme models, but with those come much higher prices.
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