1991 Nike Air Huarache

by Drew Hammell

“Have you hugged your foot today?” It was the perfect slogan for the futuristic-looking, white-and-neon-colored running sneaker with the big chunky sole and external heel cage. The Huarache was the right sneaker to welcome a decade full of wild new designs and the brightest colors ever seen in fashionable footwear. But what was Nike thinking, removing the Swoosh altogether? That logo was its moneymaker. And why was there so much neoprene? Was the world ready for a Swooshless water-ski bootie sneaker? How was this ever going to sell?

The brainchild of designer Tinker Hatfield, the Air Huarache featured a sock liner whose fit around the foot was without precedent. Bright neon colors were in, and the Huarache sported plenty of vibrant options. The outsole was chunky, like an SUV, but the sneaker itself was light, like a sports car. The Huarache offered something for everyone, but it took some getting used to.

“Only fifty pairs were booked by maybe only one store,” Hatfield told Sole Collector in 2012. “[Product line manager] Tom Archie believed in that running shoe so much that he ordered 5,000 pairs, and he didn’t even have the authority to. Then he was kind of, in a sense, on the hook for these 5,000 pairs. [Laughs.] He took them to the New York Marathon, put them in our booth at the New York Marathon, and started selling them. He sold them all. Now there are 5,000 pairs out there, and the orders just start rolling in. And then the rest is history for that running shoe that, I think, at the end of that first year had sold 250,000 pairs.”

The inspiration for the Huarache came from some unlikely places: indigenous Mexican sandals and water skis. Once, when Hatfield was water-skiing, he found himself staring down at the neoprene booties that were securing his feet to the slalom skis. “They just sort of conform around anybody’s ankle. The neoprene bootie in a water ski fits a bunch of different people, so I’m thinking, ‘That’s kind of cool.’”

It was this function and fit of the neoprene bootie that got Hatfield thinking about its use for other types of footwear—maybe something you could run in. As some of the early marketing booklets explained, the vision behind the Huarache was “form follows function.” Hatfield wanted to strip the running shoe down to its bare essentials and build it back up, with only the most necessary elements included. For Nike, the function of a shoe is always the same: performance. Nike’s goal is always to help the athlete run faster, jump higher, look better, and land softer. These ideals led to advances such as Air Max cushioning and the stretch revolution of the Huarache fit. The Huarache epitomized the philosophy of “less is more” to the athlete.

To coincide with this minimalist tech philosophy, Nike also eliminated the side Swooshes altogether with the Huarache line. In fact, the basketball, running, tennis, and trainer Huarache models barely had any Nike branding on them. “It didn’t need a Swoosh, because people knew that only Nike could think of this crazy idea and then pull it off,” Hatfield said in a post published on Nike.com.

Internally, at Nike, there were debates about the Swoosh removal. This was a risky move by Hatfield, but, if anything, the lack of a big Swoosh drew even more attention to the Huarache.

Not only was there no Swoosh logo, there was also no visible Air bubble. Hatfield’s original sketch featured a visible Air unit in the sole, but the final model ditched the window. This was a somewhat puzzling direction for Hatfield to move in because Nike was becoming famous for its massive visible Air windows, which differentiated the brand from its competitors. Why not build on its success by continuing to use that window? Ultimately, the decision to scrap the visible bubble was the right move, as the final product was eye-catching and extremely cushiony.

Hatfield certainly wasn’t the only one working on the Huarache and experimenting with different designs. In fact, some of the most legendary designers of all time were involved in the Huarache creative process. The godfather of Nike SB, Sandy Bodecker, also had his hand in the creation and naming of the shoe. “The first sketch sort of showed this neoprene idea with this exoskeleton over it, and Sandy, he thought it was really cool, and in a red pen, he just wrote, ‘Sneaker of the Gods,’” Hatfield told Sole Collector in 2012. “Like, it looked like something that Zeus would wear—like a sandal, kind of like a sandal. I was not thinking sandal or Huarache or anything at the time; it was Sandy who wrote ‘Sneaker of the Gods,’ and [he was] kind of thinking, ‘Yeah, this is what Zeus would wear, or Mercury or somebody.’”

It was this ability to brainstorm and think outside the box with his colleagues that allowed Hatfield to come up with ideas for a shoe that had never been considered before. Hatfield, ever the sponge, was always learning from his experiences and incorporating lessons he learned into his designs. In a way, he was sharing a story with his designs.

“So I came back. I’m going, ‘It’s sort of like a sandal.’ And then I’m going, ‘I don’t want to call it a foot sandal or something,’” Hatfield told Sole Collector in 2012. “So a lot of us had been to Mexico, and I’m thinking, ‘Instead of calling it a sandal, I’ll call it a Huarache.’ So that’s how the whole thing got started.”

A “huarache” is a leather-thonged sandal worn by indigenous Mexicans, and was popularized in the United States by ’60s hippie culture. In the late ’80s, it was Hatfield and Bodecker who bounced different concepts off each other to modernize the term.

Along with Bodecker, Hatfield credits Michael Donohue and Mike Quinn with the design of the Huarache runner. The group quickly realized that they could apply the sneaker’s ethos to other major categories, like basketball and cross-training.

To handle the basketball model design, Hatfield handed the reins to Eric Avar. “He was still pretty young at the time, so it was just sort of given to him to finish it all off,” Hatfield told Sole Collector in 2012. “So he finished his design, put in some of the other little details, and he did the outsole, too. I didn’t do that particular outsole. He took it to its conclusion, and that was because I was busy working on the cross-trainer. He was doing this one, and the running shoe was kind of just up and rolling. So that’s really how it got sort of birthed.”

Just like the runner, the basketball model took off in popularity, with Dream Team member Christian Laettner sporting it on the ’92 US Olympic team, the Fab Five players rocking it at Michigan, and Scottie Pippen wearing it in the pros.

To hype up its latest footwear breakthrough, Nike’s print ad campaign was equally bold and in your face. “Have you hugged your foot today?” asked one of the ads. “The future is here. In sizes 6 to 15,” said another. And, “Yo Buck Rogers. Your Running Shoe Is Ready,” referring to the character in the novella Armageddon 2419 A.D.

Along with the print ads came a legendary commercial for the Huarache line produced by marketing agency Wieden+Kennedy. For the commercial, W+K wanted to use John Lennon’s hit song “Instant Karma!” For that to happen, however, it needed permission from Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono. Nike had gotten itself into some hot water in 1988 when Apple Records sued the company, its ad agency, and EMI/Capitol Records over their use of the song “Revolution” in a famous commercial featuring Michael Jordan, John McEnroe, and other athletes. So, to avoid a similar outcome, Nike execs went to New York to meet with Ono and her attorney to discuss the brand’s newest campaign for the Huarache line. After they presented the concept for the ad, Ono gave permission for the rights to “Instant Karma!” The fee was the largest licensing deal for music Nike had ever paid.

The commercial, featuring athletes like Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and sprinter Michael Johnson, was a hit and aired during prime-time sporting events like the ’92 European Cup soccer final and the Wimbledon final. Ono was so pleased with the ad, she even wrote a letter to Nike attorney Mark Thomashow after it was released, sharing how touched she was. Directed by David Fincher, the commercial won the prestigious Cannes Bronze Lion award at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.

Along with the initial running, training, and basketball models, the floodgates opened for other models to use the Huarache neoprene bootie. The Mowabb, the Huarache Light, the Huarache International, the Huarache Plus, the Air Revaderchi, Andre Agassi’s Air Challenge Huarache, Scottie Pippen’s Air Dynamic Flight, and, of course, Michael Jordan’s Air Jordan VII all incorporated the Huarache language into their designs. Toward the mid- to late ’90s, the Huarache would go into hibernation as visible Air Max technology and Zoom Air took center stage. In the early to mid-2000s, though, Nike would begin to release some retro models. It also created a revamped basketball version called the Air Zoom Huarache 2K4, which had great success thanks in part to stars like Kobe Bryant sporting it. Starting in 2012, Nike swapped out the famous big sole for a more minimalist option and debuted the Huarache Free running, basketball, and training sneakers. Many of the original models returned to retailers, with the popular running, training, and basketball iterations leading the way. Today, it’s difficult to walk down the street without spotting two or three people wearing a Huarache running shoe or a sneaker owing to Hatfield’s water-ski-bootie-inspired design. Of all the sneakers Hatfield has designed over the years, the Huarache was one of his biggest risks. “You take these risks. You go to a new place. You really don’t know if it’s going to work,” Hatfield said in an article published on Nike.com. “The Air Huarache validated to us that sometimes you can take a bigger risk, and if you work hard, everything else falls into place. It changed the way that everybody thought about shoes.”

Honorable Mention
Air Jordan VI

by Ben Felderstein

The Air Jordan VI will always be a crucial part of Jordan Brand’s history. Its design tells the tale of Michael Jordan’s love for sports cars and speed, complete with a fire-red spoiler on the back. And it carries Tinker Hatfield’s signature aesthetic, which looked to unconventional sources for inspiration.

But that’s not what makes this silhouette so special. Jordan wore the shoe when he and the Bulls took down the Magic Johnson–led Lakers in 1991 to notch Jordan’s first championship, beginning his flawless 6–0 Finals record. The importance of that win, which transformed the narrative around the Bulls superstar, to Jordan’s legacy as a basketball player cannot be overstated. The same goes for the sneakers he wore, which were immediately imbued with a new weight, his legend growing.

In 1991, the VI debuted in a “White/Infrared” colorway that was soon followed by a “Black/Infrared” counterpart, as well as the “Maroon,” “Sport Blue,” and “Carmine” iterations. Today, the “Black/Infrared” makeup—the one MJ wore in the title-winning game—is regarded as one of the best original Jordan releases of all time, having been retroed four times since its initial drop, in 2000, 2010, 2014, and 2019. In its retro lifecycle, the shoe was adopted by Kanye West and his circle of Chicago creatives, who were particularly drawn to that makeup.

Like other models, the Jordan VI has further immortalized its namesake player’s story, highlighting major moments in his career through its design flourishes. Drops have paid homage to his first ring, his championship celebration, his endorsement deal with Gatorade, his “Black Cat” nickname, and more. The shoe also made an appearance in the ’90s anime series Slam Dunk, which was referenced by Jordan Brand in a special-edition pair in 2014.

The Air Jordan VI has also been sold in a handful of two-sneaker packs, including the Defining Moments Pack in 2006, a Countdown Pack with the Air Jordan XVII in 2008, an “Infrared” Pack in 2010, and again in a Golden Moments Pack in 2012, only proving the shoe’s popularity.

The VI remains sought after, anchored not just by retro returns but high-profile collaborations with the likes of Travis Scott, stylist and model Aleali May, and French football club Paris Saint-Germain. Though it’s not currently as lauded as more iconic models like the Jordan 1 and the Jordan III, the Air Jordan VI is an essential collector’s piece and a legit artifact of sports history.