Arguably the world’s most celebrated sneaker designer, Tinker Hatfield has unveiled a collaboration that breaks away from the norm of working with athletes and fashion icons.
Speaking at a Nike event in Portland, Oregon, earlier this week, Hatfield spoke about an exciting project, culminating in a silhouette built around well known basketball writer Scoop Jackson.
This collab is the latest of ideas that has stemmed from Hatfield’s cunning mind. The designer is the mastermind behind some of Nike and Air Jordan’s most infamous sneakers, with the Air Jordan III through to the XV and then XX, and XX3 coming through him.
He was also also responsible for the Air Max revolution, which was perhaps his greatest ever work.
The 65-year-old Hatfield says that he started working on the shoe 14 months ago, when he asked Jackson to pen a letter on why basketball was important to him.
A couple months later, Hatfield got the letter, and went to work.
“I’ve got this letter, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is a huge responsibility now.'” Hatfield said. “This isn’t just sitting down with Kobe Bryant or Michael or anybody — this is, like, different. And so, I designed the shoe, and it’s in development right now.”
Jackson, a former editor of SLAM Magazine and contributor to ESPN has written about basketball since the early 1990s, and has even penned a book on Nike basketball sneakers. He is nearly always seen rocking Nike Basketball gear.
Hatfield says Jackson hasn’t seen the shoe described here yet due to Nike’s intellectual property guidelines. But he said that Jackson is going to have more input on the shoe’s design process.
“Once I get the working prototype that can be tried on, and played basketball in, I’m gonna get on a plane and go see Scoop and show it to him,” Hatfield said.
“We’ll talk a little bit more about his story and how it influenced the design of the shoe.”
