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Article: ONE STEP FORWARD.(Air Max Deluxe athletic shoe by Nike)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Harper's Magazine
- Article date:
- June 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Harper's Magazine Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The modern sneaker picks up where the foot leaves off
This sneaker, the Air Max Deluxe by Nike (2 pounds, 5.7 ounces; $140), is a direct descendant of the fin de siele canvas "duck deck," considered revolutionary for its rubber soles and ventilation eyelets, and used for yachting, the tennis court, and those casual occasions when people wished to avoid the sweaty discomfort of tight leather boots with thick heels. The earliest sneakers kept a low aesthetic profile, demurely seeking to camouflage themselves in skin tones, but just decades later the deck shoe has mutated into something entirely unrecognizable. The Air Max, with its sinuous biomorphic shapes, ...