{"id":6370,"date":"2019-02-21T17:47:52","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T16:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/52.30.207.235\/force-flashback-bomb-threats-nike-hq-and-a-very-special-af-1\/"},"modified":"2019-02-21T17:47:52","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T16:47:52","slug":"force-flashback-bomb-threats-nike-hq-and-a-very-special-af-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/force-flashback-bomb-threats-nike-hq-and-a-very-special-af-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Force Flashback: Bomb Threats, Nike HQ and a Very Special AF-1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three years ago \u2013 in February, 2016 \u2013 I achieved a dream that had long felt impossible. As the Deputy Editor for Sneaker Freaker<\/a> at the time, I was invited all the way to Portland, Oregon, to visit Nike<\/a><\/strong> HQ to meet with some of the most talented designers in all of footwear in the lead up to Air Max<\/a> <\/strong>Day 2016.<\/p>\n

As the big day approached, my excitement was almost uncontainable. I searched through every shoebox in my collection for the perfect pair to commemorate the occasion and popped the tags on a vintage Nike Air-branded Air Jordan<\/a><\/strong> varsity jacket that had remained unworn for close to three decades. I was ready… I just needed to fly to the other side of the Earth from Melbourne, Australia, to get there!<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The trip was anything but smooth sailing. Delays in Melbourne meant I very nearly missed my connecting flight to LAX, although the worst was yet to come. We made it about three hours out of Sydney before being advised that there had been a \u2018security breach\u2019 at Sydney airport and we would have to return to Australian soil. Knowing the trip would be running to a tight schedule, I looked at my watch and ran calculations through my mind, wondering if my dream was about to be shattered.<\/p>\n

A few hours later we landed in the city of Brisbane, about an hour north from our original starting destination. As the plane docked at the gate and we prepared to disembark, we were finally told the truth behind the security break: a bomb threat had been called in on our flight and they kept us in the dark so we wouldn\u2019t panic. An army of federal police officers were ready and waiting to storm the plane once all the passengers were safely in the terminal. Thankfully we didn\u2019t blow up, but even with the knowledge that I\u2019d been potentially close to death wasn\u2019t enough to distract me from the seconds ticking down on my watch.<\/p>\n

\"News<\/p>\n

The incident meant the plane\u2019s entire crew needed to be replaced, resulting in a six hour delay before we could hit the skies to continue our near 14 hour journey. I lost 12 hours due to the incident: a sixth of the entire time I would be spending in the US on this trip. I pressed on and made it to Portland at midnight, eating up any chance of rest and recovery before a massive day of meetings and interviews.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/p>\n

I got to my hotel at 1am, but it would be closer to 5am before I could calm my nerves, adjust to the time zone and finally get some rest. My first interview for the day was scheduled for 7am at Nike HQ, so I knew the next day was going to be a struggle, but there was nothing I could do but roll with the situation and try to keep it together.<\/p>\n

\"Nike<\/p>\n

During the first half of the day, I sat down with the head of NIKEiD, J. J. Griffin, before being introduced to Nike Basketball veteran Leo Chang. I was on the home stretch and managing to keep things together, but, by this stage, I was well and truly running out of juice. I sat down with the supremely talented Dylan Raasch \u2013 the man behind the Air Max 720, among a string of other acclaimed sneakers<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 and the exhaustion from the chaos of the last 24 hours well and truly kicked in. Before I knew it, I had turned into a delirious zombie and even lost the ability to string together a sentence. Total disaster!<\/p>\n

Thankfully, ever the professional, Dylan was understanding of my situation. After all, it\u2019s not every day you get struck with a bomb threat!<\/p>\n

To commemorate the occasion, J. J. Griffin created a pair of custom Air Force 1s as a memento for me to remember the eventful trip. He kept the design a surprise, but I couldn\u2019t have been happier when the pair finally arrived.<\/p>\n

\"Nike<\/p>\n

Staying true to the philosophy \u2018less is more\u2019, J. J. put together a classic white Uptown, perfectly balanced with colour-changing lenticular accents, multicolour outsoles and galaxy-inspired inner lining.<\/p>\n

\"Nike<\/p>\n

Portland\u2019s airport code, PDX, and the date of my arrival, \u20182.18.16\u2019, were embroidered on the heels.<\/p>\n

\"PDX<\/p>\n

My trip to Nike HQ was about as eventful as it gets, but it was a small price to pay to bring a lifelong dream to life. I\u2019d do it all again in a heartbeat!<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three years ago \u2013 in February, 2016 \u2013 I achieved a dream that had long felt impossible. As the Deputy Editor for Sneaker Freaker at the time, I was invited<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,63],"tags":[],"powerkit_post_featured":[4,7,5,6,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-6370","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-noticias"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6370"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.footdistrict.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=6370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}