Real Talk: Tinker Hatfield Is the GOAT of Sneaker Design
When got a job at as a corporate architect in 1981, it was unforeseeable just how much structural impact he would end up having. Once he got out of the architectural department and into design, he went on to create some of the most influential sneakers in the world, including the and an integral chunk of signature line. Nike co-founder has even gone as far to label him as the saviour of Nike since he pulled the company out of a rut not only once but twice with his revolutionary designs. He did this by considering all the essential elements of good design for every single product he created, including function, aesthetics, brand identity, and storytelling. Through this, Tinker sparked change throughout the entire industry, completely transforming the way designers work with athletes and producing sneakers so far ahead of their time that they have stood their ground against over three decades of new innovation.
All the way back in 1998, Fortune magazine included Tinker on the prestigious ‘100 Most Influential Designers of the Century’ list, and given his prominence and legacy, we’re now promoting his title to the Greatest Sneaker Designer of All Time.
Forget Mother, an Athlete/Architect/Designer Knows Best
Tinker Hatfield’s journey with Nike actually started way before he designed for them, as he received a full athletic scholarship to the University of Oregon where he was coached by none other than – a famous sporting coach and . Bowerman believed Tinker had the potential to be an Olympic pole vaulter; however, in his freshman year, Tinker fell 17ft and tore his ankle in half. Even though it now wasn’t possible for him to be a professional athlete, Tinker stayed at the University of Oregon continuing his degree in architecture and working with Bowerman to create shoes for the team’s athletes. Bowerman’s approach to designing shoes for his athletes was to solve a problem, and Tinker very much took this philosophy into his own career, stating in , ‘For me as a designer, it is not the ultimate goal to become self-expressive. The end goal is to solve a problem for someone else, and hopefully it looks great.’
Tinker’s philosophy to solve problems through design has defined his career perhaps the most out of all his experience, maybe even more so than his experience as an athlete, so it’s fitting that one of his very first designs came from a problem he both witnessed and experienced himself. In 1987, it was common for people to take multiple shoes to the gym because each one stuck in its tiny performance lane, but even more so, it was common for people to be wearing the wrong shoes. Tinker had enough of it, especially since he had to take four shoes himself, so he pitched a shoe that would essentially do it all: the . An amalgamation of four shoes into one, the Air Trainer had technical qualifications to boot: the three-quarter height provided stability while the black forefoot strap added a layer of support, and the versatile aesthetics and premium leather allowed the Air Trainer 1 to flex perfectly at the gym, in the street and on the court. The cross trainer ended up seeing great commercial success partly due to clever marketing and an integral partnership with tennis player John McEnroe and baseballer Bo Jackson; however, it was of course at its core due to Tinker’s ability to identify a problem and come up with the perfect solution.
In some ways, the biggest problem Tinker ever solved throughout his career was the problem of Michael Jordan wanting to jump ship from Nike to adidas in 1987. Michael didn’t like the Air Jordan 2 and felt could provide better performance shoes for him, so the whole relationship was on the rocks. This also meant Nike as a whole was on the rocks, as they desperately needed the partnership to work. The task to design the and by default convince MJ to stay was passed onto Tinker. He approached it from his typical solution-based angle where he was committed to solving this problem for both MJ and Nike. So, Tinker met with MJ and asked him what he wanted from a basketball shoe, then he went away and implemented all of that feedback, including how MJ wanted a midcut, even though it had never been done for a basketball shoe, and he wanted it to feel already broken in even when brand new, so Tinker chose a really soft leather that would still provide good stability, and he also wanted a pattern that had never been seen on a basketball shoe before, which is where the signature elephant print came from. Tinker’s design not only convinced Jordan to stay, but it made Nike $162 million in the first year of release alone, completely changed the way athletes collaborate with brands, and created one of the most important and influential lines of sneakers.
Get in the DeLorean
Like problem solving, Tinker has a knack for designing for the future, which is why his creations are always packed full of the latest innovations. Each Air Jordan had to be better than the last, so the innovation machine on that line was well and truly oiled, but outside of that, the Air Max 1 and Air Huarache were two of Tinker’s designs that shook the industry. When Tinker first proposed the idea of having visible air units on the AM1, it was so bold for its time that it almost got him fired. Thankfully, the Air Max 1 saw the light of day, as it is still one of the most influential sneakers in the modern market. The Air Huarache saw similar doubt within Nike at the time, but saw Tinker’s vision, declaring it the ‘sneaker of gods’, and the first 5000 pairs went to marathon runners who loved the unique, snug fit. It ushered in a whole new era of comfort, and even though running technology has definitively evolved in the 30 years since, it continues to hold prominence with sneakerheads as a cult classic design, with new iterations still releasing. Tinker said, ‘The Air Huarache validated to us that sometimes you can take a bigger risk, and if you work hard, everything else falls into place. It changed the way that everybody thought about shoes.’
Tinker’s longest and most outrageous innovative project has of course been E.A.RL., which stands for Electro Adaptive Reactive Lacing. It all started in 1987 when he was asked to design a shoe for the Back to the Future franchise, which by definition had to be designed for the future – 2015 to be exact. When Tinker was brainstorming, he decided that he didn’t want to make the design a gimmick, but instead something plausible that would actually get people excited about the future: enter the self-lacing Nike MAG. Tinker has long wanted to take that idea one step further though, as he knew that professional athlete’s feet suffered from always having their shoes tied up super tight. This is where the E.A.R.L. project came in as a shoe that knows its wearer and would automatically adjust and adapt to the needs of the wearer. In 2016, this dream finally became a reality with the HyperAdapt 1.0, a shoe that was essentially an extension of the wearer’s body with a fit that is tailored to each moment. The HyperAdapt caused waves in the sneakersphere and beyond when they initially released, but eventually, the novelty wore off and the idea faded since the technology is of more use to athletes than the general public. Nonetheless, that was the problem Tinker set out to solve, and through decades of dedication and research, it was finally achieved.
Thou art the Shakespeare of Sneaker Design
‘A basic design is always functional, but a great one will always say something’. — Tinker Hatfield
Tinker has a story behind every design, and this is what makes his designs and Nike as a whole so compelling. The story will find Tinker, in any sort of way, and he will then allow it to guide him to a design that hits all those functional points. In an interview on , he says he always has three narratives or layers to each design and it will continually evolve as the process goes on. Using the Jordan line as an example, the first layer of the design is Michael Jordan’s playing style: how does he play, what does he need, and how could he be better? The second tells the story of him as a person: what’s his personality like, what is he thinking about off-court, what are his interests? Lastly, he’ll just see something that will give him the final piece of inspiration, like a motorbike, a poster or a concert. By doing this, Tinker has given the design a personality, which the everyday consumer can then relate to, making it a more captivating product. Without it, a shoe is just a shoe.
Tinker did this time and time again. The ‘Safari’ print on the Air Max 1 was inspired by an ostrich leather couch he saw in New York, the Air Max 1 was modelled after the Centre Pompidou, the flames on the Air Jordan 5 were inspired by fighter jet planes because Tinker thought it matched how MJ played on-court, the Air Huarache was inspired by the neoprene booties on waterskis, and the Air Jordan 14 was inspired by MJ’s love of motorsports, and in particular Ferrari. The list goes on and on, and this is perhaps what adds that je ne sais quoi to Tinker’s creations and what makes him the greatest sneaker designer of all time.
To sum it all up, there are no better words than from Michael Jordan: ‘Tinker is a mad scientist’.
There’s a whole shipping container’s worth of Tinker Hatfield designs we didn’t mention, but you’ll have to buy to read more about them!