“I think we did that quite nuanced over the years. “You have to be willing to pull yourself back and be objective and self-aware and communicate so that the listener of it hears what you intend to say,” he says. Even to this day, if he were to sit with Hatfield to design a pair of shoes, he’d pull from things he learned both from the designer and from writing his 2009 autobiography, Open. “It fueled my desire,” he says, “to push parameters.”Īs Agassi aged, he says his style grew more traditional. When the negative reactions came it spurred him on more, he says, remembering how the president of the French tennis federation threatened a white-only dress code similar to Wimbledon after seeing the Hot Lava shoes. Those little points of inspiration came from Agassi, but the colors, patterns and final designs were products of the Nike design team, all rooted in the effort of providing an “anti-establishment kind of perspective I proactively wanted to bring to the table” and inspired him. “It brings back a lot of nostalgia, but it is hard to put it in context in today’s perspectives.” “I remember all the nuance of inspirations,” he says. The lime green that played prominently on a variety of pieces from the era and the Z-like “slash” from early Air Tech Challenge collections came from a then 19-year-old Agassi discussing a car he liked that looked like it was going 100 miles per hour, even when parked. He remembers sitting with Nike designers Tinker Hatfield and Wilson Smith. Nikeįor Agassi, that nostalgia comes personal. Open 2020 Challenge Court collection from Nike. “In this day and age of noise, certain things of the past tend to stimulate and remind us of times gone by.”ĭetails on the U.S. “I don’t think you can create it you can’t manufacture it, it has to be real and authentic and leave its mark in its time,” Agassi says. Seeing it come full circle is somewhat natural, he says, adding, “I suppose if you stick around long enough, even the mullet will come back in style.” Still, he thinks the authenticity of it all resonated at the time and still matters today. Even the denim shorts - not the made-to-look-like denim of today, but actual heavy denim - had tech built in with buttons on the sides so he had two choices of waist size “if I lost too many pounds in a humid match, I had to go to the next button.” Of course, having the opportunity to rebel at every point - Agassi says that the apparel was one of the better rebellion outlets for him, as he made “regretful” decisions in some of his personal choices - allowed him to merge performance with style in what he describes as something that “came together magically.” He encouraged Nike to tweak the zipper on the shirt, so it didn’t flap about when he served, all small nuances that Agassi put his spin on. Not only did it have a singular aesthetic, but it solved the issue he had of constantly twisting his shirt and rolling it to get it out of the way before a point. The spandex short underneath the denim was the first example of that, he says. Agassi, though, wasn’t just about shock value. “I think, generally speaking, the jean shorts were a bit of a reaction I had, a gravitational pull toward rebellion,” he says. But he didn’t stop with brightly adorned footwear, splashing bold graphics, colors and materials across his entire wardrobe, including the noticeable neon he wore - from footwear to spandex to shirt to headband - during the finals of the U.S. NikeĪt the age of just 20 in 1990, Agassi first made fashion waves with the Hot Lava (think: pink) Air Tech Challenge II shoes he debuted at Indian Wells and then made famous during his run to the finals of the French Open. Open Challenge Court collection with inspiration from Andre Agassi. NikeĬheck out the video below on how to clean your kicks.The 2020 U.S. Nike The medial side of the “Hot Lava Black” Nike LeBron 16. Nike The lateral side of the “Hot Lava Black” Nike LeBron 16. Nike The medial side of the “Hot Lava White” Nike LeBron 16. The lateral side of the “Hot Lava White” Nike LeBron 16. In 2013, the tennis great re-signed with the Swoosh, which kicked off a number of special-edition sneaker releases. The Nike Air Tech Challenge 2 “Hot Lava” will retail for $130, while the white and black colorways of the Nike LeBron 16 “Hot Lava” will cost $200.Īgassi spent 17 years with Nike before signing with Adidas in 2005. Coinciding with the return of the Air Tech Challenge 2, two contrasting white and black makeups of the LeBron 16 “Hot Lava” will also release featuring the aforementioned pattern at the heel, tongue and on the Swoosh logo.Īll three pairs will be available on the SNKRS app Friday at 10 a.m.
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