Nike X Atmos Air Max 1 ‘Safari’: How Tokyo Revitalized Sneaker Culture

Tokyo has long been recognized as one of the two cores of sneaker and streetwear culture opposite New York City, owing to the strong collector culture that had existed in Japan’s consumer culture prior to the introduction of western sneakers. Shopping districts like Harajuku, Akihabara, and Shibuya have acted as hubs for fans of Japanese pop culture, videogames, anime, and manga. However, those shopping districts also house places of sneaker worship. Tokyo sneaker culture has long been associated with the Japanese fashion scene in general, so in the late 80s to the early 2000s, the Japanese fashion scene was heavily influenced by vintage clothing, and with meshing vintages influences with contemporary fashion. This led to traditional American and European sneakers, like the Air Force 1 and the Jordan 1, to achieve great success in Japan. However, no shoe or shoe line was as popular as the Air Max line, which was a hit in Japan from the get-go, and many of Japan’s most prominent sneaker businesses and brands started off as shops that resold classic Nike and Adidas shoes, and particularly Air Maxes, like atmos and Skit in Tokyo. Eventually, atmos did a collaboration with Nike on the Nike Air Max 1, which is arguably the most iconic shoe in the Air Max lineage, and their collaboration resulted in the Nike x atmos Air Max 1 ‘ Safari’, which to this day stands as one of the most coveted Nike collaborations of all time.  This collaboration was notable for both its bright, at the time unique color scheme, as well as the first known sighting of the atmos “Safari” print on a Nike shoe. I don’t really feel like talking about prints anymore after my speech, but the Safari print became a trademark and international representative of atmos, and in subsequent collaborations, the print has made appearances, and other Nike shoes pay homage to the print and the original collaboration by mimicking the color scheme of the shoe and using the print, such as the Lebron 15 Low Atmos “Safari”.

The release of the original shoe and the craze surrounding it turned western attention towards the Japanese sneaker scene, which surprised western audiences with their intense respect for the brands and the history of sneakers in Western cultures. The dignity and respect emblematic of Japanese culture mixed with their reverence for vintage goods led to them have an extremely reverent regard towards sneakers, which impacted change in the US sneaker scene. In particular, Japanese sneaker culture influenced the advent of stores like Flight Club, which is one of the most famous sneaker stores in America, and follows in the footsteps of early Japanese sneaker culture by focusing their business around selling vintage and rare sneakers.

Images:

(Nike x Atmos Air Max 1 ‘Safari’) https://66.media.tumblr.com/2740a836db377903d75df0d2a3ca3923/tumblr_o3l33owgiz1r92k5yo1_1280.jpg

(Nike Lebron 15 Low Atmos “Safari”) https://i2.wp.com/s3.amazonaws.com/nicekickswpoffloads3/files/2019/02/18181628/atmos-x-nike-lebron-16-low-vs-milwaukee-bucks-2-e1551520856818.jpg?resize=1140%2C648