Air Max 1/97 Sean Wotherspoon

Back in 2017, Nike invited 12 influencers (RevolutionAirs) during its Nike Air Max Day “Vote Forward” campaign. The goal was to have these 12 RevolutionAirs each reimagine and design an unique pair of Nike Air Max. The shoe with the most votes will be released by Nike later on in the next Air Max day. This Vote Forward campaign was proven to be a huge success and allowed Nike to connect better with the sneaker community.

The sneaker draws inspiration from a lot of places: including vintage Nike hats, windbreakers, sneakers, Sean’s love for vintage clothing, and two iconic Air Max models. As the name suggests, this shoe is a hybrid of Nike Air Max 97 and Air Max 1 with the 97’s upper and the 1’s bottom.

Interestingly, the sneaker was designed to be worn and made to fray. Sean purposely chose the use corduroy as the main material of the shoe for a number of reasons. First, he believes that a corduroy sneaker would only get better with age. The way corduroy gets worn in and starts fading is what Sean wants for this sneaker. Second, he believes that colors are always their richest in corduroy. The way the colors change under different light or angles and when they get worn down and fades is why Sean chose corduroy for the main material of this sneaker.

Another interesting fact, because of Sean’s passion for being a vegan (influenced by his wife), the entire shoe is also vegan. Meaning there is no animal products involved in the production of this shoe.