2nd best Designer behind Tinker Hatfield? Opinions?

[jmizzo]

Ken Link has a ton of talent...but not my cup of tea in regards to the bulkiness of his shoes....most of his shoes just have too much of a boot look and feelfor me to buy....I heard he is out of their basketball division now and in Nike football...

 

[h-n-t-w-m-n]

Originally Posted by oneonenine

appreciate that list above, i know alot of time and effort went into it.

should we start a new thread and maybe have everything on the 1st page, and have a mod update it all on the 1st page?

i do not want to see a bunch of 1 word responses or just quoting in a thread like this.

who did the jordan xiv ?
also i was always curious who designed one of my grail shoes " the air shake ndestrukt " ?

the name is not in my head right now, who was the original designer of the original griffey line? those are some of my favorites as well

as i grew up on these in middle school.

Tracy Teague did the Griffey line. For that he's genius.

Gotta add to Tinker the SC Trainer(s), Air Max Trainer etc. There are so many relevant shoes that need to be added to that list (all designers). Goodstarting point, though.

 

[bib10]

Originally Posted by swingshot

Still a fairly sketchy list, mistakes? additions?
Feel free to chip in.
Chang, Leo
KD1
KD2

Petrie, Jason

Air Force Stat one
Air Max Lebron VII
Air Windmill Flight (altered significantly from original concept)

swingshot
very useful info. thx for sharing with us!

Petrie, Jason 's design shoes list
Zoom Flight Club
more about his other design: http://niketalk.com/topic/134454

Chang, Leo 's design shoes list
Hyperize
Nike Zoom LBJ Ambassador 1 & 2

 

[23nokaoi]

Eric Avar, I was impressed with pretty much everything he designed especially my favorite nike the penny foams

and the penny line

 

[swingshot]

^ List edited. Thanks for chipping in. Again, questions, comments, criticism?
This is a group effort after all.

Originally Posted by AiRodney23

Man, thanks for that list. I've always been curious as to who designed the shoes in the Barkley line.

If anyone could fill in the gaps on those, i for one would be ecstatic. Some of his shoes are amongst my personal favorites ever.

 

[air 96st]

C'mon, what a loaded title.. 2nd Best? That would be Tinker. EA is Nike KING of design.

 

[scarru]

Originally Posted by Juice8732

I think Nike should include the designers name on the box somewhere..

I second that. After all it is a piece of art work and it would be like an artist signing their painting.

 

[swingshot]

There's probably a few raaons why Nike wouldn't really want to publicise individual designers that heavily.

 

[soleoneyez]

I've never been into the actual designers. But based on that list previously posted Eric Avar has hands down the most sought after shoes released by Nike.

Tinker has the benefit of designing for one of the most influential athletes in American history.

 

[3onpar5]

Isnt is safe to say though that without Tinker there would be no Eric Avar? I mean Tinker started sneaker DESIGN. He made it art. BTW I love this thread.

 

[never wear them]

Sneaker art wouldve evolved eventually..... That simple... We would not be stuck in a world of chucks.... Tinker was the first to step up... That's it. Hisview on shoe designs were ahead of his time tho.

 

[emmanuelabor]

Originally Posted by never wear them

Sneaker art wouldve evolved eventually..... That simple... We would not be stuck in a world of chucks.... Tinker was the first to step up... That's it. His view on shoe designs were ahead of his time tho.

we might not be stuck in a world of Chucks, but we might be stuck in a world of Dada or Reebok.

what Im saying is that I kinda feel like alot of what Nike is today was built off Tinker's design process. Sure others MAY have surpassed him now, butthere is the distinct possiblity that his design style made them look at shoes differently, and thus influence what theyre coming out with now

 

[never wear them]

Beautiful point. He did put Nike on the charts.... Which led other designers to be creative with their designes. Gotcha. My bad. (Closed minded fool I am)

 

[c4]

Good to see a thread like this.... imo, these guys create a functional product with can also be looked as a piece of art.
To say who's the best or 2nd best is going to be personal opinion. Who's the better artist, Rembrandt or Picasso? Two different styles, but both areappreciated.

 

[jfmartimcdandruff]

Originally Posted by SoleOnEyez

I've never been into the actual designers. But based on that list previously posted Eric Avar has hands down the most sought after shoes released by Nike.

Tinker has the benefit of designing for one of the most influential athletes in American history.

Tinker has the most sought after shoes released by Nike.

 

[mp23]

Avar also did Gary Payton's line, Zoom GP (ski-boot inspired lock-down buckle), Zoom GP II (thermoplastic urethane support chassis), Zoom GP III (MORFconcept), Payton IV (TPU structures and full-length Zoom) including the Zoom Flight with the zip-up sheath and the monkey paws and the Zoom Flight Hawk. Thatline, to me, is underrated massively. I was sad to see GP go to JB and lose his sig line.

 

[ricky2104]

ken link for me based on his work with the early lebron line...i wont deny avar has clean lines but in my eye ken seems to be underrated so far.....

 

[scarru]

not sure if someone mentioned this already but I guess you could also make an argument for Bruce Kilgore based on the fact that he designed theAF1....isn't that the best selling shoe of all time? Definitely doesn't have the # of classic designs as a lot of the other guys though.

 

[swingshot]

Payton line added to Avar.

Other Huaraches added to Tinker.

Originally Posted by scarru

not sure if someone mentioned this already but I guess you could also make an argument for Bruce Kilgore based on the fact that he designed the AF1....isn't that the best selling shoe of all time?.

If it's not Nike's best seller, it's got to be near the top.

At this point, i wonder if the Air Classic/Air Max BW is one of their best sellers too..it's been in almost continuous production for 18 years or so....

i'm guessing Tinker designed that, but i could be wrong.

 

[Sinner]

A great, informative thread.  I finally took the time to go through some of the posts. 

I personally don't like naming anyone the GOAT at anything... Calling Tinker the best might be a bit disrespectful to the other current great designers, like Avar, Link, etc.  At the same time, putting Avar as #1 would also be disrespectful to Tinker, because I'm guessing Tinker's innovation and 'outside-the-box' thinking might have inspired a lot of the designers that followed him.  

For me, I like Tinker's portfolio of shoes over Avars.  Ultimately, as everyone has a different preference on their favorite shoe (Tracy Teague might not be on everyone's list of top designers, but he designed one of my all-time favs, the Air Griffey Max...

), I don't think we'll ever come to a conclusion that we can agree on. 

Just my 2cents.

BTW, I remember seeing some of Tinker's patents for several of the Air Tech Challenge shoes (ATC 1-4 and Air Challenge Huarache, IIRC).

 

[tokes99]

Originally Posted by emmanuelabor

never wear them wrote:

---

Sneaker art wouldve evolved eventually..... That simple... We would not be stuck in a world of chucks.... Tinker was the first to step up... That's it. His view on shoe designs were ahead of his time tho.

we might not be stuck in a world of Chucks, but we might be stuck in a world of Dada or Reebok.

what Im saying is that I kinda feel like alot of what Nike is today was built off Tinker's design process.  Sure others MAY have surpassed him now, but there is the distinct possiblity that his design style made them look at shoes differently, and thus influence what theyre coming out with now
  


1. what makes nike what it is today & really separates nike from the other brands is primarily that they market, promote, & tell their story better than everyone else...and they stay consistent with the message, that they make innovative product(s) for athletes; so they always have a connection to sport/sport lifestyle...it was a confluence of factors that built the empire, the designs while influential, were not the main factor(s) as much as the philosophy that nike seems to have about the product(s) they make...

2. rockdeep's point is one i always bring up when i have these discussions about favorite designers, the fact that tinker had the blessing of designing for the most influential athlete in the modern era (at least when it comes to selling product) always gives me pause, because despite all that tinker (just look at all those patents!) has done for nike, the reason we know his name is because of jordan

3. a world of dada or reebok? would that be a bad thing?...those places have designers too, that work just as hard

granted we are talking about nike, but there have been plenty of influential designers @ nike (& with other brands as well, who aren't as well known, whose names we don't & will prolly never know like the aforementioned E. Scott Morris, Bruce Kilgore, Scott Hewett, Kyle Pulli, Jon Morris, etc)...man i wish kicksology was still around...

i can't really put one in front on the other....but if i had to choose, i'd rock with avar as my#1...with tinker 1a

 

[flight84]

Tinker is 1

 

[emmanuelabor]

Originally Posted by tokes99

Originally Posted by emmanuelabor

never wear them wrote:

---

Sneaker art wouldve evolved eventually..... That simple... We would not be stuck in a world of chucks.... Tinker was the first to step up... That's it. His view on shoe designs were ahead of his time tho.

we might not be stuck in a world of Chucks, but we might be stuck in a world of Dada or Reebok.

what Im saying is that I kinda feel like alot of what Nike is today was built off Tinker's design process.  Sure others MAY have surpassed him now, but there is the distinct possiblity that his design style made them look at shoes differently, and thus influence what theyre coming out with now
  

1. what makes nike what it is today & really separates nike from the other brands is primarily that they market, promote, & tell their story better than everyone else...and they stay consistent with the message, that they make innovative product(s) for athletes; so they always have a connection to sport/sport lifestyle...it was a confluence of factors that built the empire, the designs while influential, were not the main factor(s) as much as the philosophy that nike seems to have about the product(s) they make...

2. rockdeep's point is one i always bring up when i have these discussions about favorite designers, the fact that tinker had the blessing of designing for the most influential athlete in the modern era (at least when it comes to selling product) always gives me pause, because despite all that tinker (just look at all those patents!) has done for nike, the reason we know his name is because of jordan

3. a world of dada or reebok? would that be a bad thing?...those places have designers too, that work just as hard

granted we are talking about nike, but there have been plenty of influential designers @ nike (& with other brands as well, who aren't as well known, whose names we don't & will prolly never know like the aforementioned E. Scott Morris, Bruce Kilgore, Scott Hewett, Kyle Pulli, Jon Morris, etc)...man i wish kicksology was still around...

i can't really put one in front on the other....but if i had to choose, i'd rock with avar as my#1...with tinker 1a
1. I guess you could say that, but would you agree that the whole visible air concept really helped Nike along?  Wasnt Tinker responsible for that?  I mean Im not dicussing who made Nike what it is on a business level, Im speaking strictly on the level of designers and potential influences.

2. is designing for Jordan really a blessing?  I'd say its a gift and a curse.  if anything, I could argue that Tinker is as important to Jordans sneaker legacy as Jordan is himself. Look at the popularity of the Jordan shoes NOT designed by Tinker vs. shoes he did design, and consider the large percentage of sneaker consumers doesnt have a clue nor care who Tinker is. Look at Lebron and Kobe.  theyre both huge stars, yet their shoes dont sell nearly as well as Jordan in his playing days.  that could be attributed to a number of things, but to assume that just because a person is designing for the flagship player(s) of the company is a blessing is a stretch in my opinion.  

3. would it be a bad thing?  Maybe.  how many pairs of Dada's and Reebok do you own compared to Nike? Are you saying that Dada and Reebok have designs that are consistantly comparable to Nike?  I never said they dont have designers that work just as hard, so Im not sure why you even took that angle and I really dont see what work ethic has to do with it.    

 

[rockdeep]

I love where this convo has gone since I have chimed in last. If anyone knows... I am a big proponent of telling the Designers story. I patented my own Site I have yet to ever get off the ground Called Hidden Inside the Designers Mind. (HIDM)

I was working on compiling Notes, Sketches, stories and pics of the entire Design Process and samples... and someone from SC actually saw the plans for that... hmmm.. wonder where they got that idea.. lol But its all good. As long as some of that stuff is seen.

Its why I often say, some of the stuff thats NEVER seen or put at retail is better than some of the stuff Nike releases not to mention other compnaies.

I too often thought putting a Placard about the original Design Concept and story of a shoe being put into the Box was something some folks would love. Taking it a step further.. the way Jordan use to have a Video of himself and a commercial playing at FNL or FTL why not have a video playing of the Design Process and story of that shoe going so Consumers can feel more connected to that shoe?

I think it would go a long way.. We always talk about a story being told.. but how many people actually know or see that story? They just see a shoe and a pricepoint. They have no knowledge of its story.

Theres always a story behind the shoe....if there's not.. its probably not meant for Retail anyway.

 

[agentarenas]

Eric Avar hands down. His designs are both functional and creative. Lateral outrigger is one of the biggest contributions to a shoe in recent memory imo.