Boy in the 90z: Uncovering 180degreesofAir with @bjorn7t8

As one of the most iconic franchises going, the Sneaker Freaker community isn’t short of Air Max memories. Air Max Day is just around the corner, so we connected with some of the biggest collectors in the game to chat about their most treasured pairs, the line’s cultural impact and the grails that got away. This time, we met with Bjorn – the man behind Instagram account @180degreesofair – to chat all things Air 180.

So, give us the rundown. What’s your name/alias/social handle, where are you from, and which Air Max model got you hooked?

My name is Bjorn ( @bjorn7t8), I’m from the Netherlands and I run the @180degreesofair page on IG.

What’s on foot right now?

The Nike Air Max 180 x Size? ‘Dusk’ (2018) is often my go-to pair nowadays for their comfort. For me, these are the best-shaped 180s from the 2018 releases.

What specific memories or emotions does your Air Max collection evoke? Is there a particular pair that holds the most sentimental value for you, and what’s the story behind it?

Most of the pairs I have are influenced by me growing up as a ‘Boy in the 90z’ (s/o @tommy_triggah), so imagine Air Max 90/IIIs, Air Max Structure Triaxs, some Air Max 93s, 95s, 97s, Air Max 1s and a lot of Air 180s. A lot of them have connections to friends who assisted me in obtaining them, or the conversations we had about them.

One story comes to mind: a couple of years back during a Sneakerness event in Amsterdam, I ran into @midsole.ams's stand. He was selling a wide range of his 180s with rare samples and even some OG pairs from 1991 and 1992. After some good laughs and a nice chat, I carried on, but a close friend of mine was stunned I didn't buy the OG WMNS Air 180 ‘Laser Crimson’. Yes, the pair was in pretty bad shape, but they’re also very, very hard to find. These ones even came with the iconic original Air 180 box for a very fair price. Without me noticing it, my friend went back, bought the pair and gifted them to me. I'm still grateful that he’d felt that this was likely the last opportunity to obtain this particular pair of OG Air 180s. I still wonder to this day what was wrong with me when I decided to not buy them.

Is there a grail you’re still hunting?

There are still many great 180s out there that I don't have in my collection, but almost all of them are from the 2005 era and therefore are hardly wearable anymore. With the exception of the pair in the story above, I normally only go after shoes that are still wearable. Outside of those ones, I do regret not buying the 2018 Nike Air 180 ID ‘Alfons Holtgreve’, as these have full 'leather' uppers and that comes in handy when you live in a country where it rains a lot (as I do). What would be on the top of my list though is a release of the Air 180 in its true form: the OG Clear Turquoise colourway (‘Aqua’). This is the only OG colourway that has never been retroed since its original release in the 90s. All five other OG colourways have received that treatment already. With the upcoming true-to-OG-form re-release of the Air 180, this year seems like the perfect opportunity to release that colourway again and then these will be on my list for sure.

Tell us a funny or terrifying Air Max story that happened to you?

In late 2017, I went out for a classic camp out for the Air Max '97 ‘German Camo’ at AFew shop in Düsseldorf, Germany. As it turned out, camping wouldn't have been really necessary, but that's always a gamble in my size (US11.5). While standing in line, I also participated in the SNKRS Draw and I GOT 'EM in a size US11. So I ended up with two pairs in the end; however, this was an EU-exclusive release and I knew my Australian friend Nick (@vrs_0ne) was looking to cop this pair in the US11 size.

I sent my second pair over to him, with him buying them from me via a friends & family transaction, but the tracking stopped immediately after the pair left the Netherlands. As you can imagine, the postal customer service wasn't very helpful. Nick and I remained in contact, but after a month of silence, I gave up and assumed the pair was lost. I was already thinking about sending him back the money and taking my loss as I didn't want him to think that I had scammed him, but right at that moment, Nick messaged that they were finally delivered to his front door. It was a total surprise as the tracking was still dead, but a good end to that story!

Tell us about @180degreesofair. Why it started, the community you've built and what the future looks like.

Back in '91, when the OG Air 180 ‘Ultramarine’ dropped, I was really stunned by their appearance. It's probably hard to understand when you haven't lived that moment, but they were sleek, a stunning colourway, and above all they had that huge Air unit – the first time the Air unit was visible for a full 180 degrees. It was truly groundbreaking technology, never before seen on a pair of shoes. However, I was in my early teenage years and unable to buy them myself, and my parents were certainly not buying them for me as their price was 'huge' as well.

I was able to buy myself my first pair of Air Max in 1994 (AM2, as in squared), but the 180s were not available anymore in my area and the internet and resellers didn't really exist yet. I kept buying good stuff throughout the rest of the 90s and early 2000s, but I wouldn’t call it collecting. I used to have two to three pairs max and wear them until I totally trashed them at some house party, then I’d throw them away and move on to the next pair (RIP OG AM95 'Neons').

I even paused buying sneakers for some years until somewhere around 2014. Of course, by then, the internet had fully emerged to almost what it is nowadays, so I learned that I had missed a lot of new opportunities for buying Air 180s. After missing out too many times and with the internet providing options to correct my mistakes, I copped some 180s via forums and marketplaces, finally satisfying the appetite for the mythical silhouette I drooled over as a kid.

Then 2018 came. The CDG x Air Max 180 dropped, and that was shortly followed by another rendition of the ‘Ultramarines’. They weren’t as good as the OGs, but nevertheless, there were plenty more options for wearable 180s again. Interest in the silhouette was boosted in general, and I spent hours and hours digging through digital archives, learning a lot of new details about the previous 180 releases in the process. Instagram especially proved to be a valuable archive, once you went through the many wormholes the platform provides. Accounts including @karl.lashnikov (now @iceberg.og), @edzy76, @vic_damone, @f_hainer, @antmansw9 and @damiensneaker contained a lot of details on obscure 180s I'd never known of before. But it was a lot of hassle to obtain all this.

When the ‘Fire and Ice’ pack was announced in August 2018, I decided to dedicate an IG account to pay tribute to the 180, as I was missing a central 'archive' myself. I saved all of Air 180 posts I could find and reposted them, accompanied by the info I had on them. Those earlier posts contain quite a lot of info on the depicted pairs. The account grabbed way more attention than I had anticipated and that led to even more good conversations and more insight on the 180s. The IG Highlights sections proved valuable for sharing info on the upcoming 180 releases and 180 pairs that went on sale at specific shops. It also still serves as a place to connect 180 sellers to buyers – for example, this very weekend, Yannik ( @swoosh_fever_og) from Germany travelled a stunning total of 16 hours to pick up multiple pairs of DS OG Air 180s from a seller in Berlin he found through these highlights, just to be sure the pairs wouldn't crumble if he had put his trust in the postal services to deliver them instead.

Stories like these keep me motivated to put energy into this account. The downside is that it’s taking more time than I could have ever imagined, as I try to answer all the comments and messages I receive. I’m hardly ever active on my personal account anymore and sometimes I have to pause activity on the 180degreesofAir account as well to keep some balance with my family and work. The future of this account will be heavily influenced by the soon-to-be-released 1-on-1 retro of the Nike Air 180, and from what I've understood from trustworthy sources, we won't be disappointed, so the account is probably heading into some heavy Air 180 activity for months to come.

In your view, what Air Max release had the biggest cultural impact and why?

That's a tough question as it totally depends on your POV or how you interpret it, but here are my two cents:

On a global scale, I'd say the Air Max 1, as this concept of visible Air is still a major driver for a lot of new silhouettes released by Nike. We are almost reaching the 40th anniversary of this concept. Another Air Max silhouette that had a huge impact on the culture here in the Netherlands was the Big Window – this dominated the 'uniforms' (s/o @timbeumers) of the gabber culture – basically Australian tracksuits donned with the Nike Air Max BW. This is sometimes over-exaggerated, as many Air Max models were popular in those days, but you’d see a lot of BWs at raves back then. It was nice to see the Air Max BW ‘Rotterdam’ release a couple of years back paying homage to that gabber culture from the 90s.

What would you like to see for the future of Air Max?

This is probably going to sound like I’m an old guy moaning here, but I would like to see that feeling of real comfort return to them. A lot of Air Maxes in the early 90s also had (non-visible) air underneath the forefoot, and the lining was thicker around the ankles as well. In some recrafted pairs, this technology and the use of better materials returned (the Air Max III ‘Recrafted’ is a very good example), but I'd like to see that return in future releases as a basis, not as an extra. Rumour has it that a forefoot Air unit will also return in the upcoming Air 180s, as well as an OG-inspired box.

On the other hand, I like the way Nike is now approaching the release of the Air Max Dn, where a lot of emphasis is on the technology of the shoes and Air unit, just like it was in the 90s. But trying to stay innovative on a concept that's this old already is hard and will be even harder when time passes. Therefore I'd like to see improvement in the quality of releases, and not quantity as we see a lot nowadays.

What’s an Air Max myth you can bust for us?

It's not a real myth anymore, but more Air doesn't mean more comfort per se. The Air Max 97 as a silhouette is by far not the most comfortable Air Max I have in my collection. I'd even argue that’s the Air Max Zero for me, but you haven't heard that from this 180 guy! I would love to see the Zero silhouette return someday, perfect shoes for hot days.

What does being a part of the Air Max community mean to you?

I'd say it's way broader than only Air Max. I met a lot of fantastic people through a shared interest in Air Max, but very often we find we have other mutual interests as well – usually in music, food & drinks and sports (s/o @vic_damone & @djimmy9_). At the same time, you can have very different backgrounds. I’ve named quite a few of the people I've had contact with or met in person here above but there are many, many more. This social aspect of getting to know other people, who you wouldn't have met or started a conversation with in other circumstances, is the best part for me.

Show us three of your rarest Airs.

• Air 180 WMNS ‘Crimson/Deep Magenta’ (1991)
• Air 180 ‘Studio ID’ (2004)
• Air 180 Blue Ribbon Sports Powerwall (2005)

For more Air Max memories, check out our interview with @misskata87.