wow. ive never seen many of those photos. You are exactly right. I dont remember those days so I can only recollect off of what others have stated but cross trainers back then were something else. A premier line for Nike. How they got forgotten and molested, I'll never know.
my favorite mens TW II:
White grey black and a hint of red
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RE: black based trainers, the one in that photo are a retro C/W as noted by sinnerp.
As far as OG colorways of ANY cross trainer in general I can think of maybe 8 total in a 5 year span.
-at1 high and low black based safari theme:
these from 1987-88 nike air cross trainer low
then came the sc trainer II with a black based low in 89
(around this same time, 2 pitch black tier2/tier3 cross trainers came out. IE cheaper versions of the Signature models.
- your SC III HIGH RAIDER #34 in 90, and then in 91 the trainer max in black.white..
this tw lite was "considered a black based c/w" in 91:
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now that I think about it, there was an Air trainer "III" in a black base.. Batman had a pair
In general though, from 87 to 91, black based shoes were rare. Even escape/ LE's didnt appear to fully come out until 92 and beyond. On a full numbers perspective, we may be looking at a 10 to 150 ratio, or a 1 to 15 or a 7% mark. Today, almost every release has a black based counterpart.
With that said almost all of these Trainer II retro colorways are dark colored based or black based. I can think of the white tecmo bo's and the all white supremes on the other spectrum. They have either been too extreme or too plain. nothing close to the OG counterparts
