Tinker Hatfield

Tinker Haven Hatfield is the renowned designer of many of Nike's most popular and innovative athletic shoe designs, including the Air Jordan III through Air Jordan XV, the twentieth anniversary Air Jordan XX, the final numbered Air Jordan, the XXIII, the 2010 (XXV) and other athletic sneakers including the world's first "cross training" shoes, the Nike Air Trainer. Hatfield oversees Nike's "Innovation Kitchen".

Contents

Early life

Hatfield grew up in Halsey in Linn County, Oregon, and graduated from Central Linn High School.[1] In high school he was an all-state selection as basketball player, football player, and an All-American in track and field, leading to him being named as the athlete of the year in 1970 for high school athletes in Oregon.[1] He then attended the University of Oregon where he ran track for coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, and at one time had the pole vault record at the school.[1] Academically, he studied architecture and graduated from the University of Oregon School of Architecture.[1]

Nike

Hatfield joined Nike in 1981 and in 1985 started working on shoe design.[1] He realized that his architectural skills also could be applied to athletic shoes. Hatfield was also published for the architectural design of his Portland, Oregon home. He claims to have designed the cross-trainer as a "multi-sport" shoe when he realized people at his Oregon gym brought various sneakers with them for diverse activities such as basketball, aerobics, weightlifting and jogging. In 1987, Tinker Hatfield designed the Air Max 1 Running Shoe. The visible airbag and lightweight engineering ensured status as the icon of the original running Shoe.

Sportstyle Magazine listed Hatfield as one the most influential people on the business side of sports in both 1993 and 1996, while Fortune pegged him as one of the "100 Most Influential Designers" of the twentieth century in 1998.[1] He also created the graphic design on the basketball court at the Matthew Knight Arena at the University of Oregon when the facility opened in 2011.[2]

Hatfield's younger brother, Tobie Hatfield, joined Nike in 1990 as a senior engineer.[3]

Jordans

Tinker Hatfield was also the designer of the Air Jordans 3 through 16 and 20.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Peterson, Erik (December 19, 2002). "Tinkering with success". Albany Democrat-Herald. http://www.democratherald.com/news/article_3841b5a2-f980-568e-8a3f-f3d9a3a5bca7.html. Retrieved 10 December 2009. 
  2. ^ Richard, Brandon (November 7, 2010). "Tinker Hatfield Designs New University of Oregon Basketball Court". Sole Collector. http://solecollector.com/Sneakers/News/Tinker-Hatfield-Designs-New-University-of-Oregon-Basketball-Court/. Retrieved 13 January 2011. 
  3. ^ Wieberg, Steve. "Hatfields & Olympics: 'It's gotta be the shoes'". USA TODAY. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/torino/2006-02-19-hatfield-shoes_x.htm. Retrieved 14 July 2011.