crooked tongues magazine News Features

[bNike Air Max 1s were the hype this year and, having seen the line sheets for inline and top tier makeups of the model, that's not going to stop in 2013. They still look better on women though. Somebody at Nike has noticed the female interest in the shoe (lest we forget, the excellent Flamingo reds and Aqua/Thistle AM1 colourways from 1988 were for the ladies). These January 2013 variations are one of those shoes we can't quite suss out because of their resemblance to past triumphs. Is it just us or does the Sail, Hyper Red and Street Grey combo look a lot like the U.S.A. Air Max 1 from 2002 that sat on European sale shelves for a long, long time despite being amazing? The canvas-style mesh and almost pearlescent leather effect on the swoosh and rand over the synthetic suede of old is a significant point of difference, but the patriotic vibe remains.

That colourway was toying with us by nearly bringing back the old grey and navy OG (much like the Greystone versions from 2004 nearly did too) and these keep playing games with us too in the nicest possible way. A decade on, the time would have been right to bring that once-ignored U.S.A. edition back properly (or better still, the '88 palette properly), so that those who slept could atone for their sins at full price and the new female and streetcar Dave audiences could lap it up too. For a minute, we thought we were bored of our beloved Air Max 1. We weren't — the colourways were just getting boring. This one might be a women's makeup, but they'll be sizing up to an average UK men's size too, even if we could live without the shininess and that weird exposed foam on the Blazer-style tongue. Who had exposed foam on their shoes in 1987? Doesn't that contradict the progressive power of the original Max and the revolutionary nature of the shoe a little? Maybe we shouldn't read too much into these things. These arrive in the Crooked Tongues store next month.