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Celebrating Tinker Hatfield’s Birthday With 5 of His Most Underrated Designs

Celebrating Tinker Hatfield’s Birthday With 5 of His Most Underrated Designs

To celebrate legendary Nike designer Tinker Hatfield’s 70th birthday, we chose to highlight some of his more underrated but no less great sneaker creations.

Matt DeSciora

Michael Jordan deserves the credit he receives for his contributions to sneakers. Had it not been for his otherworldly accomplishments in basketball, his signature Air Jordans wouldn’t have been seen by millions of people and on display during some of the NBA’s biggest moments in the 1980s and ‘90s. Had Jordan not been so marketable, Air Jordans wouldn't have been featured in commercials with pop culture icons like Bugs Bunny and Spike Lee, in magazines and books, or in movies like “Space Jam.”

But as much as Jordan’s popularity helped influence people to collect sneakers, he wasn’t alone in spearheading the culture’s rise to prominence. Surely Tinker Hatfield, the architect behind so many of Jordan’s most iconic signature shoes, played as important of a role as Jordan did. It’s only logical.

Hatfield took over as the lead designer of the Air Jordan line beginning with the Jordan 3 in 1988. He kept his post until Jordan’s second retirement in 1999, and still designs for Jordan Brand in 2022. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, Hatfield teamed up with Jordan to create and market iconic sneakers like the Air Jordan 4 and Air Jordan 11, all the while bringing new, innovative technology to the collection in the process.

It’s remarkable, but Hatfield would almost certainly hold the crown as the field’s top designer even if you disqualified his Air Jordan work. He’s the mind behind the original Air Max line and the entire Cross-Training footwear category—two segments of Nike footwear that have had as much to do with the brand’s success as anything else.

In celebration of Hatfield’s 70th birthday, which is tomorrow, April 30th, we’ve rounded up a few of our favorite shoes by the man nicknamed “The Architect.” But instead of reciting his most popular creations, we’ve decided to show love to five of the more underrated sneakers designed by the visionary.

In no particular order, these are our favorite, most slept-on Tinker Hatfield-designed Nike sneakers.

Nike Air Safari

Way, way before lifestyle-specific athletic footwear was a thing, there was the Nike Air Safari. A sneaker that looked and felt like a running shoe but was built in leather with a funky pattern on it simply wasn’t a thing back in 1987 when it debuted. The Air Safari is a shoe that looks like it sounds—jungle-inspired. Its safari pattern on the toe and heel is similar to the elephant print design Hatfield used on some other shoe he also created in ‘87: the Air Jordan 3.

Nike Air Raid

Few sneakers better encapsulate the era in which they were born into than the Nike Air Raid, a basketball sneaker designed specifically for outdoor courts. The rugged design is pure ‘90s-era Nike footwear, and a prime example of Hatfield’s willingness to think outside the box. The Air Raid’s reinforced midfoot straps and beefy tooling were an advance in sneaker technology at the time of its release in 1992.

Nike Air Max2 CB ‘94

Worn by Charles Barkley during the height of his career and a year after winning the ‘93 NBA MVP Award, the Nike Air Max2 CB ‘94 is perhaps “Sir Charles’s” most recognizable silhouette among many great styles. Hatfield’s ingenious creativity was once again on display here, as the shoe features straitjacket-inspired support straps that separated it from any other athlete’s signature shoe.

Nike Air Huarache Light

You may be more familiar with the Nike Air Huarache, the performance running shoe by Hatfield from 1991 than you are with the modified, lightweight version of the shoe called the Air Huarache Light. But maybe this will help change your mind about the shoe: Michael Jordan was seen wearing the original Air Huarache Light during his time with the Birmingham Barons.

Nike ACG Air Mowabb

In addition to designing Air Jordans, Nike Air Maxes, and other popular sneakers in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Tinker Hatfield dabbled in the performance outdoors realm of footwear. He is credited with designing the Nike ACG Air Mowabb OG in 1991, a rugged, trail-inspired sneaker complete with a high-top neoprene bootie system patented by the man himself. By every measure, the Air Mowabb is Nike’s greatest outdoors sneaker ever.