Nike Powerwall Series - The Untold Story.

The history of the Powerwall series is one that has never been clear. It’s one of Nike’s biggest series ever to release, featuring 56 shoes and 32 graphic applications, and finding information or history on them is not easy at all. Other than the article written by Mr. Powerwall himself (shout out to my friend @demolitiondoel) you won’t find much else about the inspiration for the colours, patterns, and release years. I mention this a lot on many posts, but I am a huge fan of Powerwalls and think that it is the best collection of Nike Airmax ever to have released. I have spent a lot of time trying to find, collect and learn more about this pack with the hope that one day I would have built the most in-depth breakdown on this pack.

Releasing in 2006, and with the vast majority selling in your regular sneaker outlets, the Powerwall series is a celebration of '3 Decades of Cushioning' and the launch of the Nike Airmax 360. The 360 features a full-length Air unit with no foam midsole, the first of its kind (way before the Vapormax was released). What better way to launch this product than with an overload of insane colours and designs, showing the evolution of the most significant developments of Air technology selected by Mark Parker himself. The aim was to create a project that surrounded itself with the design concept of 'Art & Science.' The project was later lead by Jesse Leyva, Richard Clark, Antony Hope, Dave Schenone and Tracie West, where this project became what it is now - an array of 56 shoes spilt into 7 different packs.

Pack breakdowns:

History of Air - Featuring all of the OG colour ways from each of the most significant Airmax models picked by Mark Parker. From the Airmax 1, 90, 180, 93, 95, 97, 03 and 360.

AM1: This first shoe with a visible Air-Sole unit, the shoe dared to be different. It also came with a new midsole foot frame, heel notch and eyelets. For 1987 this shoe was built for space!

AM90: The more aggressive runner, designed by Mr. Hatfield. Brought an entirely new shape and its midsole was split into a front and back compartment too. This was to help with foot flexion and aesthetic giving them the chance to play more with colour ways.

AM180: Another Tinker design, this model offered the first direct bubble-to-floor contact with its 180 degree visible Air-Sole unit.

AM93: My favourite Airmax model and the most underrated one - the Airmax 93 (Tinker Design) drew its design inspiration from the plastic milk jugs that can be found at your local supermarket. Featuring Nikes latest (at the time) Blow moulded burst Air-Sole unit this shoe made the tech visible from any angle across the entirety of the heel. It was also the first Airmax to feature a top line Neoprene bootie similar to that of the Huarache which launched the year before in '92.

AM95: Pieced together by the legendary Sergio Lozano, the Airmax 95 holds the upmost status especially within the UK. After being told he can't have a black midsole on a runner and place the swoosh the way he has, Sergio produced a highly functional layered upper based off the human anatomy.

AM97: Introducing the full length Air-Sole unit running the length of the shoe with a foam midsole surrounding it, designer Christian Tresser built a model that gave runners sports specific crash padding to provide a more durable ride on the heel-toe movement.

AM03: One of the lesser known and least praised Airmax model, the 2003, also designed by Mr.95 (Sergio Lozano) brought a completely new design to running footwear. Keeping it very understated like he did with the 95, this shoe brought the Air-Sole unit closer to the ground which brought greater flexibility, as well as introducing a more water resistant upper to the shoe.

AM360: This forward thinking design was the focus of this Powerwalls series and a celebration of what Nike have achieved since launching the Tailwind (first shoe to feature Air tech) in 1979. It was dubbed as the last chapter of Airmax Series Volume 1 and was designed by lesser-known Nike designer Martin Lotti (also developed the Nike Flyknit Racer). This model brought the first full length 360 visible Air-Sole unit that completely removed the foam midsole and replaced it with a plastic cage.

Before going into the breakdown of each of the other packs, there is a little more untold history about the graphics that were used throughout the series. Originally, a design competition was held between Nike designers within Oregon’s WHQ. The winners’ concepts were used as the graphics for Powerwall’s series - symbolising the Art, Science and Joy of Nike Air Technology.

All Whites - The most elusive pack from the series, in my opinion. All fitted with white leather embossed uppers, suedes, Nubuck, detailed with representation of the ‘Art & Science of Nike Air’.

Extraordinary Oranges - Sometimes called Extraordinary Reds. This pack uses a range of gradient developing uppers which grow dark as you go through the pack. Starting with the ‘Pink Aluminium’ AM1 progressing through to a ‘Ruby Red’ AM360.

Extraordinary Greens - Similar to the concept of the ‘Extraordinary Oranges’, the Green pack features the same gradual gradient concept seen on the Oranges but starting with the cool ‘Lemonade Yellow’ AM1 and finishing with an ‘Outdoor Green’ AM360. The Graphics found on this pack also imitate that of the 'All Whites', but done by vinyl and embossed such as felt and synthetic suede as supposed to detailed leathers.

All Blacks - The dark and tougher side to the 'All Whites', this pack is one of the more detailed of the series. Featuring all black uppers, the shoes share the same Graphic design of the 'Extraordinary Oranges'. The difference? The use of AF1 designer Bruce Kilgores Laser etching tech tattooing the uppers.

Limited Editions - Otherwise known as the Tier - 0 pack. These are the rarest, least produced pairs of the entire series being limited to 144 of each and a rumoured 96 pairs of the AM360. Limited to only 8 Tier - 0 retailers worldwide including Footpatrol, Union and DQM.

Nike Airmax 360 Tier-0

The 'Limited Editions' pack was inspired by the Japanese toy industry and their use of bright colour placements. Nike used this colour blocking on the midsole to highlight the Air units of each model except for the 360. Not only that, across the whole series there is a use of premium materials featured on each model ranging from Ostrich, Croc and Stingray. Each of the Models also features the ‘Art & Science of Nike Air’ Graphic lasered into the leather and wax coated to cover and protect the design. Unlike the rest of the models within this Pack, the 360 was slightly different as it was a much more dulled down design. Instead of bright midsole, it featured each colour within the pack feature on the Airmax 360 branding on the shoe.

Before you keep reading, you may be wondering why the Blue Ribbons pack wasn't included above. There is one main reason, thats the fact that I feel the history of this pack has got blurred over the years and became the Blue Ribbon Sports pack. Now although that may sound the same to a lot of people they are actually 2 different stories completely. Blue Ribbon Sports refers to Nike before it was Nike, in the days of Onitsuka Tiger and early Nike developments such as the first Nike product to feature the swoosh the Nike Mundial 70 Football boot which was released in celebration of the Mexico World Cup in 1970.

This pack is actually inspired by a book called 'Blue Ribbons' written by collector and writer Takatoshi Akutagawa. When I began collecting this pack I stumbled across a blog post by the late Gary Warnett talking about this book and spent years trying to find it. It covers Takatoshi's collection of Nike trainers he has collected over the years dating from the 1970s - 80s and was published in 2005, a year before the launch of the Powerwalls series. Nike's design team were able to get their hands on a copy where they became entranced by a page called 'Which is your favourite?' which was filled with old colour ways of old Nike runners. This lead them to create a pack inspired by Nike's early running heritage, before Air was even brought to them by Frank Rudy.

As for the pack, here is a breakdown of all the shoes that the Powerwalls took their inspiration from in the Blue Ribbons book.

Blue Ribbons - Probably the most highly sort after and most important pack of the entire series. The colourways and designs of each model reference shoes from archive models 1973-1983 only found in this book. They all also feature Nike's retro tongue tab pay homage to where it all began. (Slideshow images in order of list below & links are found on the shoe name if you wish to see the model)

BRS AM1: Inspired by the Nike Yankee.

BRS AM90: Inspired by the 1982 Eagle Waffle, a long-distance running shoe which used to have the outsole changed according to the athlete’s specifications.

BRS AM180: Inspired by the ‘Dancing Shoe’ from 1983, which had a flat midsole similar to that of a Night Track. The shoe was apparently made as an SMU in these bright colours for musicians and entertainers.

BRS AM93: Inspired by the 1974 Nike Le Village. The Le Village is one of the more premium renditions of the early Cortez which was strictly a lifestyle sneaker.

BRS AM95: Inspired by the Nike Oregon Waffle racer from 1973. The Oregon was the first BRS release that came out to the market to feature a waffle outsole and the successor of Bill Bowerman’s designed Moon shoe.

BRS AM97: Although it may not look it, is inspired by the Nike Colorado from 1977. The Colorado was actually classed as one of Nike’s biggest failure designs and sadly lived a short history. That doesn’t change the fact that it was a steppingstone is Nike’s long-distance running shoes.

BRS AM03: Inspiration comes from the Nike Daybreak ‘Maple’ from 1979 that was recently rereleased as part of the Daybreaks rebirth this year.

BRS AM360: Last but not least, the 360 inspired by the Nike Night Track from 1978, based off the Nike LDV the Night Track was Nikes answer to the 70s Disco scene.

As a final note, each shoe that is featured in the Powerwalls series (excluding the History of Air models) feature a footprint of each respected design on the inner soles as a nod to those that made the original Airmax models come to life.

*Note to readers, my shoes are worn don't judge my grubby innersoles. Safe <3 x