What Makes This Shoe Great? #1 Infrareds

If you’re still new to the scene or somehow this pair has gone over your head, the "Infrared" 90s originally released in 1990. The brainchild of Tinker Hatfield and spiritual successor to the Air Max 1, the Air Max 90 silhouette saw a bigger air bubble window and overall chunkier style introduced into the Air Max Line. Although the design of 90s are indubitably revered, it was the "Infrared" colourway that made a cool sneaker into something special. With intense red highlights splashed against muted tones of grey, white and black, this colourway truly broke the mold of what a sneaker could be.

Perhaps the intensity of  "Infrareds" is what ingrained itself into our hearts and minds. The intensity of the colours, the intensity of the obnoxiously large midsole bubble and intensity of the shoe’s upper as a whole. Any sneakerhead can admit that you begin with all black or all white sneakers before seeking out the wildest and most obnoxious colourways you can find. It seems as though this loudness that incorporates most sneakerheads' favourite pairs began with the "Infrared" colourway and 90s as a whole. "Infrareds" were the pivotal pair in paving the way for sneakers to become bold as this equally  brash and obnoxious pair was a stark contrast to that of the varsity Air Max 1s that launched just years before. "Infrareds" also influenced successor Air Max colourways, particularly the Air Max 95 colourways of neons and solar reds which utilize one neon colour being incorporated with a black to white colour palette. Perhaps the best way to understand why the "Infrared" 90s were and are so great is that they were provocative and effortlessly versatile. "Infrareds" may not be the first air max or even the first air max with a unique sole, but, this particular colourway launched the Air Max line into what we know it as today and that fact alone should put it at the pointy end of most people’s favourite shoe list.

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Cover: Infrared Wheel Photo via Sneakers Mag

Class Retros Photo via Sneakers Mag

2020 Nike Air Max 90 “Infrared” via Up There