Although 2022 was a year to celebrate the 35th anniversary of  Air Max, 2023 is set to be even bigger thanks to a historical failure and some long-debated folklore...

As the story goes, the original Air Max released in 1986 and debuted Visible Air with a massive Air bubble for the world to see – bigger than anyone familiar with the modern-day shoe can appreciate. Tinker Hatfield's Le Centres George Pompidou inspired bubble was so big, there were unintended side effects. In super-cold environments, the super-sized bubble had a tendency to crack. Unhappy with this issue Nike decided to pull the model, re-tool the midsole and release the shoe with a smaller Air bubble. 

Although an objective failure, these "Big Bubble" Air Max live-on as the "holy grail" of Air. Much like the original Air Max 180, real heads pine for more air. After almost three years of development, Nike finally made things right with a proper un-compromised release of the Air Max 1 how it was originally intended.

To compliment the painstakingly re-tooled sole, the uppers and packaging have been updated to further replicate the original 1986 release. When Nike does it right, there's few which do it better.