Nike Celebrates 20 Years Of The Air Max 95 With Two New Innovations

To mark the twentieth anniversary of the Air Max 95, Nike celebrates with the release of two new models: The Air Max 95 Ultra Jacquard and the Women’s Air Max 95 Ultra. Both come from the hands of designers with strong connections to the original shoe and follow in the footsteps of Lozano by pioneering new methods of make.

The Nike Air Max 95 launched a new era for the legendary footwear dynasty. Nike’s first creative designer Sergio Lozano was inspired by human anatomy when he first designed the original Air Max 95 - with nods to muscle, bone and the natural flow of the foot and included Max Air units in the forefoot for the first time. The spine formed the shoe’s sole, ribs inspired the lace straps, skin translated to mesh.



Lozano’s creation, the Air Max 95, epitomizes the word different. No Nike running shoe before it featured a similar construction, color choice and, here’s the kicker, forefoot visible air. In his fourth year at the running and ignited the imaginations of a new generation of designers.


NIKE WOMEN'S AIR MAX 95 ULTRA, RRP $200



As the creator of the Nike Roshe One, Air Max Thea, and Air Max Ultra tooling, Nike designer Dylan Raasch knows more than a little bit about minimalist design. For the women’s specific Air Max 95 to celebrate the original model’s 20th anniversary, Raasch’s aim was to serve up a lower profile with a sleeker last. That meant drastically changing one of the main characteristics the Air Max 95: forefoot visible air.

“It was important that we made it look close to the original, even though we had to remove the forefoot Air-Sole unit,” Raasch says, explaining the painstaking process of keeping his new creation as true to the original as possible.

Further differentiation from the original comes from twisting the shoe’s color scheme. Here, the iconic gradation is reversed, beginning with black on the uppermost portion of the shoe and transitions to lighter shades moving downward. A clean white outsole finishes the look. Ironically this color scheme was one of the few ideas put forward by Sergio Lozano, the designer of the original Air Max 95, as he navigated the push back toward the use of a black outsole.


NIKE AIR MAX 95 ULTRA JACQUARD, RRP $280



From upper to outsole the Ultra Jacquard is an exercise in refinement. Deviating from Lozano’s vision on the upper, Ben Yun, Nike designer, utilized the age-old Jacquard weaving process on the one-piece upper to deliver the updated anatomy story in a single layer of fabric. Lastly, second generation Nike Flywire was applied as an update to the originals nylon webbing eyestays. “Human fascia is soft tissue. The second-gen Nike Fywire is dynamic and moves with the foot as it secures it inside the shoe. You could say they are the perfect match.”

The end result is a strikingly different yet familiar version of the Air Max 95 updated to fit the needs of an active lifestyle.

The Air Max 95 Ultra will be available from July at Nike Stores, Banks and Loaded.

The Air Max 95 Ultra Jacquard will be available from July at Nike Stores, Area 51, Banks, Good as Gold, Fridge, Freezer, Icebox and Loaded.