If 2016 has taught us anything, it’s that your 90s-00s childhood is cool again, and sneakers have led this fashion devolution. Sneakers are at the forefront of pop culture at the moment and with the influx of famous celebrities and designers working with sneaker brands to create their own unique touch to a timeless silhouette, there is more of a drive towards having the most exclusive, unique and limited sneakers available.

Some of the heavyweights of the sneaker world have all noticed this and have created something that makes your shoe totally original and gives the buyers a world where they are not limited to what they see on the shelves.

Adidas, New Balance and Nike are all allowing you to create your own shoe – from the colour of the materials to the materials themselves – and this is changing the sneaker world.

Nike ID started in 2012 and it was a dream come true for anyone who was a fan of sneakers or just liked to design. It was like colouring by numbers but you could wear the results! Starting off with an extremely limited catalogue of shoes that you could customise, it spread throughout the years to feature running shoes, casual sneakers, basketball shoes and even football and track shoes.

Take the Air Max 1, for example. This shoe came out in 1987 and was groundbreaking in technology and the look of the shoe and gave birth to the hundreds of Air Maxs that we see today. This shoe has seen its fair share of iterations over the years from leather, hyperfuse mesh, vac  tech, wool, and everything in between, and with Nike ID, they allow you to create your own, or relive a previous release that you might not have seen for 20 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUdNeFh2SDo

After all that innovation and creativity, Nike have gone one step further and just announced that their patented Flyknit material that is featured so predominantly in some of their newer models will be coming to the Air Max One. This means that this will be the lightest Air Max One to exist and will feature superior breathing and flexibility. Accompany this with the Ultra sole and you are in for a world of comfort.

The only downside to this feature is that the shoes that you create will be priced a lot higher than the pairs that you can find on the shelves. And in some cases this will add up to $60 more for the custom treatment. This also means that you will not get your newly designed kicks for up to three weeks as they are made to order. Is the wait worth it? Let us know, and get designing!