Nike designer Tinker Hatfield invented sneaker culture — here are his most iconic designs

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Tinker Hatfield with the Nike Air Max Zero. Nike

There would be no sneakerheads if it were not for Tinker Hatfield. 

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Now 63, Hatfield has been at Nike since the 1980s, when he started working on a shoe named for Michael Jordan, then a rising star in the NBA.

“When I started designing shoes in late 1985, athletic shoes were just basic performance footwear," he said in a 2000 interview. "There was no romance, no tying in with athletic personalities, no design inspiration from outside. They were just done for sports. Then Nike came on the scene.”

Here are his freshest designs, care of the Nike archive. 

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Hatfield designed Jodie Foster's futuristic kicks in 'Contact,' the Bat boot in the first 'Batman,' and Michael J. Fox's hoverboarding kicks in 'Back to the Future Part II.'

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And for last year's Back to the Future II celebrations, he designed the 2015 Nike Mag.

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Mr. Fox himself was moved.

 

The Nike Air Trainer 1 was another breakthrough.

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It was one of the first shoes that athletes could wear to the gym, in a sports event, and on the street.

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Tennis legend John McEnroe got a prototype pair and wore them in a tournament competition in 1986.

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The biggest collaboration of all? His Airness.

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As Michael Jordan made his play for becoming the greatest basketball player of all time, his Air Jordans became ultra-cool — making them foundational to street style.

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2015's MTM collection (as in Michael Jordan, Tinker Hatfield, and Nike CEO Mark Parker), celebrated 30 years of the collaboration. President Obama got the very first collection when he visited last May.

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The pack is actually two pairs of kicks: the new Air Jordan XX9, and an updated version of the sneaker that started it all, the Air Jordan I.

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It uses the old-school Air Jordan I layout, but with Nike's new Flyweave construction — which allows the upper (the shoe minus the sole) to be made of a single piece of fabric.

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It's traditional.

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And it's futuristic.

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