We've shown the orginal Infra Red inspired version of the Air Max 90 Current previously on Sneaker Freaker, and here’s a nasty new colourway that hasn't been seen before – all black with some Varsity Royal highlights that really pop. For more info on this hybrid concept, read on below...
Building the Air Max 90 Current
When Leyva and Anthony Hope set out to create a new version of the Air Max 90 for Nike Sportswear, they started by looking at the 1990 footwear catalog to see what was important at that time from a performance and design perspective. The three key features being offered at the time were cushioning, stability and lightweight innovation. Those attributes were integrated seamlessly into the 1990 collection of running shoes Nike produced, in colorways and designs that were cohesive and aesthetically innovative.
“Tinker Hatfield wanted to give the Air Max 90 the most cushioning possible while also making it lightweight,” says Leyva, “so we started thinking, ‘What if?’ What if we could use today’s innovations and bring Tinker’s shoe into the future to make exactly what he was looking for?”
The first place the design team found inspiration was on the same page of the 1990 catalog as the Air Max, an incredibly lightweight shoe called Air Current. Designed by Bruce Kilgore, mastermind behind the Air Force 1, the Current expanded on materials first seen in the Air Flow from 1989. The Flow incorporated a nylon and Lycra stretch fabric into the shoe’s forefoot that reduced the need for bulky materials while providing a comfortable dynamic fit. Years later, the Presto would further develop this concept and earn accolades as one of the most comfortable athletic shoes ever made. For the AM 90 Current, a premium stretch mesh is incorporated into the forefoot, greatly reducing weight and adding breathability to the upper.
To achieve a more comfortable ride, Anthony Hope took elements from the Nike Free, a shoe originally developed in 2005 to give runners the “free” feeling of running barefoot. Where the platform of the original Air Max 90 was built from heavy polyurethane and solid rubber, technology developed for the various versions of Free greatly reduces weight while providing improved impact absorption. A three-cage unit is incorporated into the new Air Max 90 tooling that controls the durometers of the midsole, while injected Phylon and Duralon add lightweight cushioning and traction to the flexible sectioned outsole. The resulting platform, improved at every level, works so well that it has been integrated into each version of the Fall 08 Air Max collection. Additional performance elements, like heel lobes engineered into the collar area of the shoe that improve comfort and fit, come from directly Nike’s prestigious running shoe line, the Bowerman Series.
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