Why Can't Nike Just Make the Air Units Bigger?

Originally Posted by jfeezy

El Bro wrote:
El Bro wrote:
Why are they still using the same old air units for the forfoots on some shoes like the Air max 95, Air max sensation, and a couple of others. I thought they couldnt use the old air units with the nitrogen. Nike has not gone totally seamless on all of their air units.
Any thoughts on this?

El Bro, good lookin' out on the forefoot airsoles. (Can't believe I forgot about this.) Yes, Nike was actually able to find a material/gas solution that eliminated SF6 using the existing blowmold technology (so the geometry stayed exactly the same, and the seams remained in the middle of the visible window). However, this solution worked for low-profile forefoot airsoles only! When this same approach was tried on heel and full-length airsoles, though, it failed spectacularly... the thermoforming technology is the only way to make those taller types of airsoles work. So that's why you may still see some forefoot airsoles with seams, paired up with newer heel units.

@typecast3:
"its half true and half hog wash because this guy is spinning it from Nike's point of view."
I clearly said that I've been closely involved, and that I'm speaking for myself.

"this isn't exactly what happened and notice the lack of any type of sources."

I am the source. Me. I personally worked on the team solving these problems for close to seven years. If you want to troll and pretend you know something I don't, knock yourself out... it's a free internet. As I said, this was my first post after lurking for 5+ years, so I can understand questioning based on that. If you seriously need references, though, I can think of at least one longtime NT moderator that'd vouch for my credibility.

"LOL that it took this guy 30 min of venting to just say that."
It took a lot more than that. First of all, I'm lucky enough to have (I think) one of the greatest jobs I can imagine. I tried to get my foot in the door here for four years. Once I got in, spent almost seven years working hard on these airsole issues before transitioning into the dream job I've been wanting this whole time. I finally made it and it's as great as I hoped it would be... better, even. Honestly, it's up there with getting into/graduating from college, meeting/marrying my wife, and having our kids on the "greatest things I accomplished in my life" scale.

Having said that, the safest thing for me is to assume that anything I say in a public internet forum about my employer could be traced back to me somehow, so I'm never, ever going to jeopardize what I've worked so hard for by A) lying about Nike stuff, or B) blurting out some secret, proprietary knowledge just so I can impress a bunch of people on the internet I've never met. So you can be sure that anything I post here will be non-secret truth, that I've written and rewritten and carefully thought over to make sure I'm not endangering myself. The only reason I spoke up in the first place is that the truth is actually, publicly out there (in the BusinessWeek article MrKrispy posted) but that many people who are truly interested (you all) didn't know about it, and I could help by filling in the boring scientific details of why the airsole windows had to change, to those connoisseurs who'd appreciate it. That's all.
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SUPER APPRECIATED sir......my question is why hasn't nike advertised it at all.....? did they think by not saying anything now one was going tocomplain?
 
Most of the responses in this thread are from ignorant people who know very very little about the industry.
 
Thanks jfeezy for the back story on the air sole situation although I don't know, "Sulfa Hexaflouride Max" has a nice ring to it lol....
 
i don't pretend to know the intricacies of the business or the physics/science behind the product.

what i do know is that visually, there is a significant difference in the way the air bubbles look now. however, several people in this thread are brushing itoff as just a minor change. it's not, and i think most people on this board would agree with me. at the very least, acknowledge it.
 
my thing now is, why would nike release a unproportioned retro am95? they shouldve went with smaller bubbles all around. i would assume proportions are key. iguess they figured if we can get atleast one portion of the air bubble right.
 
Jfeezy, thanks for the information. Your post was one of the most informative and interesting things I've read on NikeTalk in a loooong time. I personallyreally appreciate you taking the time to give us the low down on this topic. It makes a lot more sense now, and really applaud Nike's effort.

Also thank you to MrKrispy for the article from BusinessWeek.

For everyone that complains about the smaller Air Max units: Nike could have saved themselves some big money and not bothered working out how to do old styleswith the new technology. Then we wouldn't have half the retros we love and are looking forward to. I'm thankful Nike went out of their way to ensure weget our retro fix!

Thanks again Jfeezy and MrKrispy!
 
Also, TimCity2000, I promised you a link to that other article. I will post it in this thread when my laptop gets serviced, the screen crapped out on me several days ago.
MrKrispy... any luck finding this article? Thanks.
 
i really don't believe all the propaganda.


okay, they changed the formulation of gas used to a more environmentally friendly one.


but that has nothing to do with the size of the bubble. they could make it bigger if they wanted, nike just chooses not to.
 
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