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Tinker Hatfield    

Influential Athletic Shoe Designer & Vice President for Design and Special Projects at Nike

Tinker Haven Hatfield, Jr. is the designer of many of Nike's most popular and innovative athletic shoe designs, including the Air Jordan 3 through Air Jordan 15, the twentieth anniversary Air Jordan XX, the final numbered Air Jordan, the XXIII, the 2010 (XXV) and other athletic sneakers including the world's first "cross training" shoes, the Nike Air Trainer. Hatfield oversees Nike's "Innovation Kitchen", and serves as Vice President for Design and Special Projects.

Hatfield joined Nike in 1981, and in 1985 started working on shoe design. He claims to have designed the cross-trainer as a "multi-sport" shoe when he realized people at his Oregon gym brought various sneakers with them for diverse activities such as basketball, aerobics, weightlifting and jogging. In 1987, Tinker Hatfield designed the Air Max 1 Running Shoe after visiting the Centre Georges Pompidou; and the Infrared Air Max 90 shoe, first released in 1990. In 2014, Hatfield indicated that Nike would unveil a shoe with power-lacing technology, as worn by Marty McFly in the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II, which partially takes place in the year 2015.

Hatfield was the lead designer of Air Jordans III through XV, XX, and XX3. Additionally, Hatfield co-designed Air Jordans 2010 and xx8 He was also the lead designer in a very popular custom named, " Jay Holiday."

He has been recognized with many honors and awards, including one of Sportstyle Magazine's most influential people on the business side of sports in 1993 & 1996, One of Fortune magazine's "100 Most Influential Designers" of the 20th century in 1998, and the Ellis F. Lawrence Medal from the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts, 2008.

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