There is no brand of sneakers collected more than Nike. With a rich and well documented history, influence from their long roster of superstar athletes throughout the years, and the best marketing of any athletic brand ever, love for Nike has been instilled into multiple generations of sneaker enthusiasts, creating passionate and dedicated collectors across the globe. Since Nike has a far reaching assortment of models for various sports and styles with everything from mainstream genres like basketball and running to more obscure sub-brands like Nike ACG, collectors can get as general or specific as they want. Of course, the majority opt to stick with
the most well-known categories like Air Jordans, LeBrons, and Air Maxes?and there?s nothing wrong with that?but the more obsessive Nike collectors always dig a little deeper.
One of these more specific groups is who we?re here to get acquainted with today: vintage collectors. While most Nike collectors tend to focus on the years since Michael Jordan came around in 1985 and the Air Jordan and visible Air took over, vintage collectors are more interested in the brand?s earliest days when running was king and The Swoosh was still in its infant stage.
Everybody has their own idea of what qualifies as ?vintage? when it comes to sneakers. Some people will qualify sneakers released in the early 2000? s as vintage at this point, and most have no problem putting a shoe from the ’90s under the category, but for our purposes in this article, we?re going to focus on collectors who specialize in the pre-Air Jordan era. Using 1985 as a cut-off point to mark the ?first era” of Nike from 1972-1984, we had four of the USA?s biggest vintage collectors share their passion for the sneakers they collect.
