The Air Max 1: Why the 1987 Original Still Outsells Everything

Most sneakers that last four decades do it on nostalgia. The Air Max 1 does it on shape.

It is low, cleanly panelled, and it goes with almost anything, which is more than can be said for most of what sits beside it on a shelf. It is the pair people reach for when they want something recognisable without wanting to be looked at. That is a narrow target, and the Air Max 1 has been hitting it since 1987.

It has been the strongest performer in our Nike range this year, which is why we now carry more colourways of it than any other silhouette in the store.

A Window Into The Sole

Nike had been using Air cushioning since 1979, but nobody could see it. You were asked to take it on trust.

Tinker Hatfield trained as an architect before he joined Nike, and the answer came from a building. The Pompidou Centre in Paris puts its pipes, ducts and structural frame on the outside rather than hiding them behind a facade. Hatfield wanted to do the same thing with the cushioning: cut away part of the midsole, expose the Air unit, and let people look at the thing they were being sold.

The Air Max 1 launched in 1987 in University Red and it has not really been away since. Air Max Day falls on 26 March every year, which tells you something about how a running shoe ended up with its own date in the calendar.

Six Worth Knowing About

Seventeen colourways are available right now. These six cover the range, from the reissued big bubble tooling to the pairs sitting under a hundred pounds.

Every Colourway In Stock

Seventeen available right now, listed low to high. The collection holds twenty eight in total, so anything not shown here has sold through.

How Our Pricing Sits Against RRP

The Air Max 1 Essential carries a recommended retail price of £134.99 in the UK. Across the wider market, current season pairs sit between £134.99 and £184.99 depending on the release.

Sixteen of the seventeen colourways we hold sit below that figure. The cheapest is £79.99, which is fifty five pounds below recommended retail. The one exception is the Essential 'Off Noir Vast Grey' at £139.99.

We would not claim to be the cheapest on every pair, every day of the year. Retailers discount periodically, and when they do, a current season colourway can be found for less elsewhere. That is the nature of the trade and we see no reason to be coy about it.

What we would say is that our pricing does not depend on a sale to look reasonable. On all but one pair it sits below recommended retail as a matter of course, not as a seasonal event.

Most Of This Is No Longer Sold At Retail

More than half of what we hold is past season. The '86 Big Bubble pairs, both Golf models, Since 72, the OG Sport Red. These sold through on release and are not being made again.

There is no price to compare against on those, because there is nowhere else to buy them.

That is usually the reason people find their way here. Not a few pounds off an Essential, but the pair that sold out eighteen months ago, in the right size, verified and ready to ship.

How To Shop The Range

Everything here is in stock and ready to ship. No raffles, no queues. If your size shows as available on the product page, it is yours.

Size runs are limited and they move, so the product page is always the accurate picture rather than anything written here. Browse the full Air Max 1 collection, or see the wider Nike range.

Nike Air Max 1 FAQs