One lucky sneaker lover is about to receive the ultimate prize: the gift of free shoes.
In honor of Nike Air Max Day, an actual holiday celebrated on March 26, Hibbett Sports will award one fortunate sneakerhead with a year’s worth of stylish kicks.
On Monday, the Birmingham, Ala.-based sport apparel and footwear retailer announced the giveaway, which shoppers can enter throughout the entire month of March. Interested parties must submit their entries via a form on the retailer’s website, and they can also sign up for mobile alerts from the store, entering them for a chance to win a grand prize valued at $3,000. Hibbett says it will select a winner on April 9.
“Hibbett customers have loved Nike Air Max sneakers for decades and each year we try to do something fun to celebrate Air Max Day and highlight this iconic shoe within our community,” Sarah Sharp-Wangaard, Hibbett’s vice president of marketing, added.
Nike’s signature Air Max style, which launched in 1987, has become a favorite of sneaker aficionados worldwide. Made famous by its air-bag sole cushioning technology developed by aerospace engineer Marion Franklin Rudy, the shoe was initially conceived for runners as it offered a “smooth ride,” Nike said in a statement.
When the Air Max 1 launched in the late ‘80s, Nike was known for its sports footwear, former designer Tinker Hatfield said. But the era brought about an unprecedented appetite for streetwear that has persisted to the present day—and the Air Max quickly became a part of the urban, trend-forward uniform. “The mid-’80s was a period of transition from a more formalized hierarchy to a looser, street-based, more inspirational form,” he said. “We at Nike were part of that wave, and I just happened to be a designer doing it from a footwear perspective when nobody else was.”
Throughout the ‘90s—arguably the Air Max’s heyday—the style was revamped, evolving quickly with the changing times. The Air Max 90, Air Max Big Window, Air Max 95 and Air Max Plus were all released throughout the decade, featuring drastically different silhouettes but always incorporating the same clear, air bubble-based tech at the heel that has become the style’s calling card.
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In celebration of Air Max’s 34th year on the market, Nike announced plans to release the Air Max 2090 EOI, the Air Max Viva and the VaporMax Evo this spring. The Air Max Viva builds on previously released women’s models, featuring a cushioned midsole, exaggerated Air Max unit at the heel, leather upper, closed mesh and nubuck detailing, and a speckled midsole. Meanwhile, the VaporMax Evo is “a bolder exploration of VaporMax style,” the brand said, fusing details from the Air Max 90, Air Max 93 and the Air Max Plus.