An architect's view of an athletic shoe
On 26 March 1987 Nike released the Air Max 1, the first running shoe in the company's history to put its Air-Sole cushioning unit on display through a transparent window in the midsole.1, 2, 3 The model was designed by Tinker Hatfield, an architect by training who had joined Nike in 1981 and would later lead the Air Jordan line, starting with the Air Jordan 3 of 1988.4, 5
Hatfield drew the brief from a trip to Paris and a visit to the Centre Pompidou by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, the building that turns its structural systems and service ducts onto its facade.6, 2 He applied the same logic to running performance: the technology hidden inside Nike Air models since 1979 became a visible feature of the product.6 Internally, the proposal met resistance over fears that an exposed window would read as fragile or invite punctures.1, 6
From product release to brand asset
The launch repositioned an engineering detail as a brand signal. The Air Max line grew into a multi-decade design platform, and the original 1987 colourway, often referred to as the OG, became a reference point for subsequent anniversaries, including the 2018 Centre Pompidou tribute pack.7, 1, 8 The Air Max 1 has since been credited with linking technical innovation to visible design language across the wider sneaker category.
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1. Highsnobiety, Aaron Howes, "Nike Air Max 1: The Story Behind the Revolutionary Sneaker", 26 March 2019, for the Air Max 1 having been released on 26 March 1987, for the earlier consensus that the Air pouches "ought to be felt and not seen" and Hatfield's proposal to remove part of the midsole so the unit could be seen, for the brand's fear that the transparent display "would look structurally weak and easily punctured", for the OG Air Max 1 colourway with 3.26 on the tongue, and for the 30th birthday of the model marked as Air Max Day with an anniversary edition. https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/nike-air-max-1-history/
2. Nike, "The History of the Air Max 1", 21 February 2024, updated 28 May 2024, for the Air Max 1 having been born in 1987, for Tinker Hatfield having joined Nike in 1981 after studying architecture at the University of Oregon, for Nike having sent him to Paris for design inspiration and the Centre Pompidou being "designed like it's inside-out", and for Hatfield cutting away part of the midsole to expose the Air bag. https://www.nike.com/a/air-max-1-history
3. Wikipedia, "Nike, Inc.", read 8 October 2026, for Nike Air Max as a line of shoes first released by Nike in 1987. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike,_Inc.
4. Wikipedia, "Tinker Hatfield", read 8 October 2026, for his degree in architecture from the University of Oregon, his joining Nike in 1981, his design of the Air Max 1 in 1987 after visiting the Centre Georges Pompidou, and his role as lead designer of the Air Jordan from the Air Jordan III onwards. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_Hatfield
5. Nike, "The History of the Air Jordan 3", 17 January 2023, for the Air Jordan 3 having been released in 1988 as "the first design by Tinker Hatfield" for the Jordan line. https://www.nike.com/gb/a/air-jordan-3-history
6. Centre Pompidou, Séverine Pierron, "The secret history of the Nike Air Max, the sneaker inspired by the Centre Pompidou's architecture", 19 June 2024, for Hatfield as a trained architect who joined Nike in 1981, for his visit to the Centre Pompidou in Paris in the mid 1980s, for Piano and Rogers' idea "to externalize all the building's infrastructure" with air conditioning, escalators and heating visible, for the Air system as "an innovation patented in 1979", for the strong resistance of the company's executives, who feared customers would be put off "by the apparent fragility of such a sole", and for the 1987 launch of the Air Max 1 with its visible air bubble. https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/pompidou-plus/magazine/article/the-secret-history-of-the-nike-air-max-the-sneaker-inspired-by-the-centre-pompidous-architecture
7. Nike, "Nike Air Max Day 2025: Introducing the Air Max Dn8", 6 March 2025, updated 14 March 2025, for Air Max having been "officially launched in 1987" and having "come to symbolize both performance and cultural innovation", for the visible Air unit of the Air Max 1 "inspired by Paris' Centre Pompidou", and for 26 March as the annual Air Max Day. Listed in sources.md as the Nike News newsroom, which redirects to the newsroom index and carries no item on the Air Max 1; resolved to this brand page. https://www.nike.com/a/air-max-day
8. ArchDaily, Niall Patrick Walsh, "Nike Unveils Air Max Edition Inspired by the Centre Pompidou", 22 August 2018, off whitelist and used for corroboration only, for the 2018 Air Max 1 "Centre Pompidou" edition taking the building's exposed skeleton and coloured tubing as its inspiration. https://www.archdaily.com/900626
