In the early 1990s, basketball sneakers were Nike’s primary foc. Michael Jordan’s sneaker sales were on another planet, and the rest of the Nike hoops roster read like an All-NBA team. In an effort to revitalize the lacklter Nike running divion, Nike wanted to depart from the typical Air Max look and attack the degn proce from a fresh perspective. “That was really the goal,” Lozano said in an interview celebrating the shoe’s 20th anniversary, “do something we’ve never seen before.”

Originally degned by Hatfield, the Air Max was far and away Nike’s top running lhouette. When degning the 95, Lozano’s goal was to make a bold statement, presenting an entirely new take on the sneaker. Debuting in a electric colorway, the Adidas Nmd Femme original Neon Volt Air Max 95 helped establh the bold color codes that dominated the ‘90s. What set the shoe apart, however, was a gradient pattern going up the des of the shoe, a complete departure from the more restrained prior Nike Air Max 90 Femme generations.

Featuring four waves of color fading from the light grey eyelets down to the black midsole, the gradient pattern was inspired by rainy days at the Nike camp and the beautiful Oregon landscape. Eentially the sneaker eqvalent of a geologic striation, Lozano developed the concept while “looking acro the lake out into the trees, and I began picturing the proce of rain eroding and the earth and thought it would be interesting if the perfect product was unearthed by eroon.

Human anatomy also served as a source of inspiration. The body’s complex web of tendons and mcles working in tandem was the blueprint for the shoe’s upper, which featured layered panels remincent of mcle fibers and flesh. While not ealy vible at first glance, but look at the shoe from the rear (as dplayed in the claic Nike phone Nike Air Zoom Spiridon Womens number ad) and you can clearly see a veron of the human spine and its accompanying vertebrae.

The black midsole was as much a practical decion as a styltic one. Lozano and h team grew tired of seeing footwear with predominantly white midsoles in the often dreary Portland weather. As white midsoles always inevitably grew dirty, Lozano opted for black midsole instead, which felt both fresh and hid some of the lt that piled up as you ran.

While synonymo with Nike running sneakers and apparel today, 20-pl years ago the volt colorway was not in the athletic company’s wheelhoe. When presenting preliminary sketches of the shoe in that colorway, Lozano was told flat out that there was no way Nike would produce that shoe. After some coaxing, however, Nike finally relented. Those same prototype sketches also failed to Nike Air Vapormax Womens feature the hallmark Nike swoosh anywhere on the shoe. “I had initially degned the shoe without a swoosh becae I wanted it to be aesthetically strong,” Lozano said. During the pre-production proce, a small swoosh was added on the top corner of the de panel. It was vible, re, but they never made it big enough to dtract from the gradient—Lozano’s intended degn aesthetic.

Aesthetic details ade, what truly made the Air Max 95 a trailblazer was its unique technical features. The first Air Max to feature air chions on both the heel and the forefoot, the 95 utilized air preure technology to mold to the foot’s curvature. Original releases even featured a “25 P” air preure reading on the rear air unit and 3M Scotchlite uppers. According to Lozano, “The whole shoe was controveral becae it wasn’t your typical Nike Air Max 2017 Damen running shoe...from the degn to the color to the little swoosh, it all caed controversy.