What is the name of Nike's first shoe with a visible air cushion?

Nike’s first shoe with a visible Air cushion was the Air Max 1. Released in 1987, it transformed an unseen cushioning technology into a defining visual feature of the shoe.

Nike Air technology had appeared earlier in the 1978 Tailwind, whose pressurized air unit was hidden inside the midsole. The Air Max 1 made the system visible through a window in the heel, allowing wearers to see the cushioning instead of merely feeling it. This was a major design and marketing shift for Nike.

Designer Tinker Hatfield developed the shoe after being inspired by the exposed structural elements of Paris’s Centre Pompidou. The Air Max 1’s visible construction, split-color upper and distinctive window helped connect technical performance with bold visual design. It was initially known simply as the Air Max, before later models made “Air Max 1” the standard name.

The Air Max 1 is sometimes confused with Nike’s first Air-cushioned shoe, the Tailwind. The distinction is important: Tailwind introduced Nike Air, while Air Max 1 was the first Nike model to showcase that Air cushioning visibly from the outside.