Sometimes imagination can be tethered by manufacturing limitation.
Nike Shox was already a 20-year-old concept at the time of the BB4’s
release. The idea was too ahead of the curve, necessitating foam that
hadn’t been invented yet. It resurfaced at the tail end of the 1990s,
piquing the interest of Eric Avar and the design team as a visually
expressive technology with a significant performance value.
By letting those newly engineered Nike Shox do the talking, Eric knew
that there was no point trying to downplay the sole on a shoe like the
BB4. “I believe every shoe should have one bold, iconic expression
to it. Sometimes you can get away with two. Any more than that and it
gets too busy and you just don’t know where to focus, functionally or
aesthetically.”
The Nike Shox BB4’s look was informed by its space age concept: a
rocket and booster-like appearance was prepped for blastoff and served
to amplify the explosive potential of the columns. The upper was
designed for intergalactic exploration too, as Avar and the others at
mission control researched astronaut apparel. “The upper was
inspired from some space suits at the time. We kept it simple and
understated, but modern with a slight iridescence and reflectivity.”
Vince Carter’s iconic dunk of death over a seven-footer while wearing
a pair secured his legendary status and drove home the power of the
Nike Shox system. Off he went into the stadium atmosphere and we had
liftoff. You can’t synthesize that kind of moment, but maybe, just
maybe, those columns gave him the confidence to pull off the ultimate “posterized” dunk.
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