words // Nick DePaula
While Tinker Hatfield came up with the concept behind the original Huarache series (while off water skiing, no less), it was actually his young understudy that finessed the original running shoe design into a high-top made for basketball.
That young designer was none other than Eric Avar, and the Flight Huarache was actually his very first basketball shoe design.
"He was still pretty young at the time," reflects Hatfield. "So it was just sort of given to him to finish it all off. So he finished his design, put in some of the other little details, and he did the outsole too."
Most of the upper design certainly drafts off of the Air Huarache running shoe, but take a closer look through Eric Avar's original sketch work below for a glimpse at some of his never-before-seen alternate logo concepts, outsole cross-section tech sketches and a great diagram of what would go on to be the iconic heel counter.
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