class of '89

It's hard to find a sneakerhead that disliked the 1989 sneaker line from Nike. I think Retrokid said it best:

1989 was a banner year for Nike. First off, the Air Jordan IV, which is probably my favorite shoe of all time. What else you ask? Air Trainer SC, Air Tech Challenge II, Air Wildwood, the ESCAPE series, the whole line for the Flight and Force series, the Air Pressure, and who could forget the Air Flight 89.

I wish I had picked up just about everything that Nike made that year. The line was a visual and technical tour de force. New technology meshed with accessable style in a way that hasn't happened since. I had a pair of Driving Force hightops (technically from 1988) that exemplified the spirit of '89. Clean lines, good construction, high quality materials. Many people complained that the signature Flight and Jordan shoes cost too much that year, but when you look at all the characteristics of the shoes, they were very well-priced.

I started thinking about sneakers from that year at the most unlikely time: watching the PBS show "This Old House." While not usually a hotbed for cool sneakers, an old episode from 1989 or so came on TV where Norm Abram visited a factory and wore a pair of Air Flight '89 Mids. I remember seeing that episode back then, and I remember wanting a pair of '89s just like his, but Norm's connection to sneaker history was lost on me until now.

It got me thinking: there is a paralell between Norm Abram and the Flight '89s. Think about it. Norm played second banana to Bob Vila on TOH for many years, doing the hard work that Bob wouldn't and couldn't do, and never got the respect he deserved until after Bob left. The Flight '89 suffered a similar fate. The Flights played second banana to the Air Jordan IV for many years, but the true sneakerheads knew the Flights were technically better shoes to ball in. Bob Vila and Norm Abram both have successful TV home improvement series these days and the Jordan IV and Flight '89 both are held up as benchmarks of basketball sneaker design.