crooked tongues magazine News Features

"Epic" is a way overused word in the internet world, but it's apt when it comes to these Nikes. The images accompanying this piece aren't particularly epic, but that's what happens when we all rush out prior to a holiday weekend — that snapshot above is from a newsletter and we won't be making a habit of it. Anyway, back to the shoe; the Nike Air Epic is an important shoe. As the top tier running piece during a jogging boom and golden age for Nike runners (bear in mind that it dropped alongside the Equinox and Vector, meaning even competition in-house was strong) it's a deservedly sacred release. There were elusive Lady Epic versions back in the day, but it's the grey variation that maintains a certain magic — Mark Parker is cited as the man behind the Epic as well as plenty of other mid 1980's athletic pieces alongside Bruce Kilgore and Dan Norton, but we really think the running shoe peaked at some point in 1985.

Even hardcore runners becomingly increasingly wooed by a bewildering array of mesh and suede road running pieces fell for the Epic's good looks — those Scotchlite dots and the distinctive perforated reflective underlays at the heel, plus the Air Wedge that maintained shock absorption significantly longer than EVA cushioned shoes, plus a heel counter that gives the shoe extra support and visual substance makes it thing of beauty. From anecdotal accounts, this shoe is and was big in the Netherlands in the same way that some expensive NBs of the time blew up — cost, style and the subsequent prestige of ownership. There was even a spot of terrace love for this masterpiece over here.

This certainly isn't the first time the Air Epic has been reissued (it appeared in grey in 2003, 2004 and dropped in an array of colours for a couple of years afterwards), and while we like the burgundies that hit some sale racks, the speckled Terra ACG -alike samples and the AP Prefontaine releases, as well as the excellent super-scarce Footpatrol edition, its mid-price retro status in too many makeups diluted the power of a shoe that once retailed at $100+. As a vintaged Quickstrike edition, these reissues are on point and Nike Air's been restored to the heel. We really could live without that yellowing though, but If you can deal with it (and it's not unbearable in the flesh) they're in the Crooked Tongues store right now.