Phil Knight walked into Tinker's office one day:"Do you know who Andre Agassi is?"
"I don’t,” Hatfield says.
"Well, you’re going to. We are about to sign this young player and it is going to be your project".
And then he just left...
Launching soon is the classic Nike Air Tech Challenge II "Hot Lava" - one of our favourite sneakers of all time. The Air Tech Challenge & Nike Air Trainer line broke immense ground in tennis, but also in multiple performance categories!
Godfather of Sole, Tinker Hatfield was assigned the brief. According to The Godfather himself: Phil Knight walked into Tinker's office one day:
" Do you know who Andre Agassi is?"
"I don’t,” Hatfield says.
"Well, you’re going to. We are about to sign this young player and it is going to be your project". And then he just left. The next day Hatfield was on a plane to Las Vegas to meet Agassi, & the birth of the famed Air Tech Challenge line soon followed.
“Tennis players deserved the same kind of treatment and the best innovation possible.”
A lot of the innovation The Godfather planned to utilise - he had a hand in himself, & played a significant role in it's design & development. At this point of time no tennis shoe exists with full-length Air. Discoveries Nike had made in track & field improved the shoe's speed & stability; concepts made in basketball improved the Air Tech Challenges "all directional movement". This was combined with Nike's tried & true method of testing with professional athletes - & seeking their feedback while product is in development.
Hatfield states: “I went and met Andre at his home in Vegas and he was still just a young guy,”. “We started the design process, which was really fun because he was different than the standard player, he played differently, he hit the ball so hard from the baseline, the Nick Bollettieri style of hit it as hard as you can. I always thought it was an interesting approach, very different from John McEnroe and other athletes Nike had signed before, so that was fun.”
Agassi's Air Tech Challenge line has had a profound mark on tennis sneakers, both on & off the court. Famously, the midsole of the Air Tech Challenge made it's way to the Air Yeezy 2 decades later - further cementing it's place in fashion & sneaker history. Embraced by the general public, approved & endorsed by sneakerheads everywhere. The Air Tech Challenge is one of the greatest shoes of all time.
