Zack Schlemmer 
After recently reflecting on the story of the brand’s unique outdoors basketball sneakers, Nike SNKRS now turns their attention to another idiosyncratic piece of their history for a look at the Air Safari. Still somewhat radical looking free thirty years later, the bold and unprecedented design of the Air Safari by Tinker Hatfield was most definitely a head-turner in 1987, and according to him, a shoe most people at Nike didn’t even think was a good idea. But leave it to Tinker to create yet another radically distinct model that’s now considered an icon.
After having the idea to design a shoe that combined Nike’s sports performance technology with a more fashion-minded, non-athletic approach for casual wear, Tinker created what could now be considered the very first Nike Sportswear model in the Air Safari. As with many of his most classic designs, Tinker took inspiration from an unlikely source for the shoe: an ostrich leather couch he spotted at a luxury furniture store in New York City. Tinker’s interpretation of the textured ostrich leather would end up becoming the now-iconic Safari print that has since become one of the most recognizable and celebrated patterns utilized by Nike throughout the years.
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