How do you cater to the player who can’t be defined by an existing category? You create a new lane.
Penny Hardaway’s personal expression and mode of play set a standard
for the shoes of the future. Incredibly quick, but explosive and strong,
Penny’s strength and athleticism preempted a contemporary style — so
much so that his debut Nike signature model birthed the Uptempo line.
The Nike Air Penny’s lead designer, Eric Avar, recalls, "We had Flight
and Force and we were looking at trying to dimensionalize the basketball
line around this notion of versatility and that’s kind of what Uptempo
was."
Speed and strength couldn’t be pinned down to a solitary technology,
so Penny got a pair of performance aids — a Max Air bag for impact
protection and the newly developed Tensile Air, later renamed Zoom Air,
for court feel. The former at the rear and the latter at the front
delivered the best of both worlds for a proven combination that’s echoed
in contemporary Nike Basketball designs.
In terms of aesthetics, Avar just had to find a way to reflect the
wearer’s limitless approach. "I studied Penny’s style, his game and the
product just took shape from there."
That shape helped shift the silhouette of the basketball shoe in a
new direction for good, with style and game perfectly imbued in each
element of the Nike Air Penny. That 1Cent logo and crystal swoosh exuded
confidence, hinting that this was just the start of a relationship
rooted in expression and experimentation.
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