Nike : Designer Bruce Kilgore Dishes on Nike Air Force 1
October 23, 2017 at 10:07 am EDT
Share
'It was my first basketball shoe,' notes Kilgore. After the Air Force 1, Kilgore continued working on court shoes. He created a tennis line-up that included the Avenger, Adversary and Air Ace (at left), as well as the Nike Air Pressure and the Air Jordan II.
After some initial manufacturing mishaps, Kilgore's drawings finally found the form we know today - thanks to some sage advice from a sock-liner distributor. 'He said, 'I can get that mold made for you. I guarantee either the tooling will be right, or it will be free,'' Kilgore recalls. 'So I gave him the drawings, and maybe five or six weeks later he brought me some soles, and they were perfect. He introduced us to the mold makers in Spain and then, through us, they were taught how to make multicolored midsoles and cup soles.'
The Air Force 1 was initially built in the USA and was the first slip-lasted Nike shoe, a construction method wherein the upper is pulled over the last and then attached to the midsole. 'We were just learning how to do that in Exeter, [New Hampshire, home to Nike's first Sports Research Lab],' Kilgore remembers. Some running shoes were being made nearby in Maine, but the Air Force 1 became part of a production center on Water Street in Exeter, which also produced the Nike Rivalry.
Wear-test samples of the Air Force 1 were delivered to college players by Kilgore himself, who - along with another Nike colleague - loaded up a pickup truck with samples and hit the road. 'We just drove around. He knew the schools and the people of them. I was just the designer along for the ride, there to talk to the athletes and get their responses.'
Nike Inc. published this content on 23 October 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 23 October 2017 14:06:07 UTC.
Original documenthttps://news.nike.com/news/designer-bruce-kilgore-dishes-on-nike-air-force-1
Public permalinkhttp://www.publicnow.com/view/99A34B93A108F11AB8EB68BDA21007B9B1CE40DB
Nike, Inc. specializes in the design, manufacturing and marketing of sports shoes, clothing, and equipment. The group's products are sold primarily under the names Nike, Jordan, Converse Chuck Taylor, All Star, One Star, Star Chevron and Jack Purcell. Net sales break down by family of products as follows:
- footwear (68.9%);
- clothing (27.2%);
- sports equipment (3.4%): golf equipment (golf clubs, balls, gloves, etc.), bags, balls, etc.;
- other (0.5%).
At the end of May 2023, products were being marketed through a network of 1,032 stores worldwide, through independent distributors, and via the Internet.
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: North America (44.3%), Europe/Middle East/Africa (27.5%), China (14.9%), Asia/Pacific and Latin America (13.2%) and other (0.1%).
NIKE, INC. 
