On the occasion of Air Max Day, we review the origins of AIR units, an element that began as a technology and is today a mode of expression.
Although we refer to it as AIR, it is actually nitrogen.
It is practical, fashionable, and comfy, but hey, it is just air, right? Not exactly. Air has been around us for a few billion years, but it wasn’t until 1979 that Frank Rudy managed to get it into sneakers and make it functional. That was not the happy ending; rather, it was the start of a number of procedures meant to raise manufacturing, resource efficiency, and performance levels. The AIR units contained sulphur hexafluoride, or SF6, as it was originally conceived by Frank Rudy.
A gas commonly used as an insulator and cooling medium. However, time showed that it could cause environmental damage if not properly reused, so Nike, since 2006, only uses nitrogen. The atmosphere is composed of 78.08% nitrogen, so any leakage has a negligible impact on the environment. Although the amounts used are tiny, this change also provides a practical advantage – nitrogen weighs less than SF6.
Although the air gets all the credit, the real challenge was to create a structure that could keep the air inside and be flexible and durable enough. That’s thermoplastic polyurethane, TPU. When we say that Frank Rudy invented AIR, what he actually did was to create the right ratio between the size of the atoms inside the air chamber and the casing.
Testing air with skunks
Once Frank Rudy had his first air chambers ready, it remained to find out if they were really functional. That’s where E.C. Ned Frederick, a biomechanist who worked as a professor of zoology at the universities of North Arizona and Tennessee, came in, an expert in skunk anatomy (an animal that, surprisingly, shares certain anatomical characteristics with humans). Frederick found that inner tubes caused 10% less impact than ordinary running shoes ded runners consumed 2.8% less energy.
Air Max, much more than air
And that was Air in 1979. In 1986 Air Max arrived and what was once just Air developed a life of its own related to design, youth and urban cultures. Each new Air Max was both a technological evolution and a new design language, new urban tribes that gave it a new meaning, generations that understood each Air Max as a direct interlocutor and a mode of expression.
Air Max Day 2024
Air Max Day is the celebration of AIR technology and the evolution of constant reinvention. 2024 is the year of Air Max DN featuring Dynamic Air, a unit composed of four dual tubes in which air moves freely to always be where it is needed most. A new Air Max that reimagines the future.
Check out the Air Max collection now available. And watch for special Air Max Day releases on March 26th at FOOTDISTRICT.