NIKE BASKETBALL 1992-2012: TWENTY DESIGNS THAT CHANGED THE GAME

Can you still remember what you were doing way back 1992? What were you into, what were you wearing on your feet? Where were you when the Dream Team played in Barcelona? Twenty years... Can you remember the changes you went through as a spectator, as a fan - as an athlete?

Twenty years is a long time. I was 7 when I saw the Dream Team play live. It's all a blur now, but I can still recall the excitement quite vividly. I remember Magic more than any other player... That's because I was a fan - twenty years ago, until now. I remember Chuck Daly's suits, Team USA's uniform, and of course - their shoes. Mike's and Chuck's were my favorites, while Pip's and The Admiral's joints came in at close second.

Twenty years is indeed a long time. But that makes reminiscing so much sweeter.

This past week, Nike also took a walk along memory lane. Remembering their footwear creations, inventions and innovations from the past twenty years in basketball. For many of us who grew up in the '90s and '00s, we have a certain bias for shoes designed in that generation. The shoes that came out the woodwork looked wildly experimental; most are extremely ostentatious, and some are just straight out-of-this-world. But that does not take any genius away from the design or the minds behind it. Some of the state-of-the-art shoes that we rock today owe their very existence to these avant garde mavericks of the '90s and the new millenium.

Nike Basketball’s releases over the last 20 years represent the definition and redefinition of the hoops shoe. A 20-year work-in-progress. A cycle of delivering the unimaginable, making it better and then doing it all over again.

Nike designers have instigated multiple movements from 1992 to the present day. Of course, Nike has been committed to basketball since the 1970s. But new rules in the early 1990s opened up a global stage for the brand’s elite athletes, changing perceptions of basketball forever.

Branding was minimized, amplified, removed, flipped and then resurrected. Leather gave way to Durabuck, then pioneering poured foams, before uppers were fused. Shorts got longer, colorways went metallic and pearlescent before exploding in a limitless burst of brightness. Then there was Max Air, Nike Zoom, Tuned Air, Nike Shox and Nike Lunarlon — assistants in the sole unit for every type of player.

Nike designed for every movement, every dunk on primetime, every embarrassment in a concrete park somewhere. It matched point for point the new breed of athletes with their multiple modes of play.

Nike’s design continues to create the rules - conquering its own achievements to perfect performance for the next wave of icons.

In celebration of the summer of basketball, Nike is revisiting their most iconic Nike Basketball shoes of the past 20 years. Beginning today, July 24, the untold stories of these 20 iconic shoes will be released daily here.

Get ready to nerd out, design-nuts! Because every day we get to dive into inside stories from designers, original sketches, early ads and graphics, and more.

Keep it here as we celebrate 20 years of basketball evolution through Nike's contribution in footwear design.

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