Zack Schlemmer 
The biggest sneaker of the summer for Nike Sportswear is undoubtedly the Air Max 95. Returning in its acclaimed original “Neon” colorway, the shoe has been one of the hottest models on the market, especially with the help of its two newest iterations, the Air Max 95 Ultra Jacquard and the women’s-specific Air Max 95 Ultra. Sneaker blog Sole Movement recently sat down with each of the newest Air Max 95s’ designers, Ben Yun and Dylan Raasch, respectively. You can check out a couple of questions from each designer’s process for their Air Max 95 redesign below, and hit up Sole Movement for the full interviews of both Ben Yun and Dylan Raasch.
Ben Yun:
What makes what you’ve created for the 20th anniversary of the Air Max 95 different from the models you’ve previously worked on?
All of the previous models were created to intentionally not stray too far from the original design language. All we wanted to do was alter the method of make so the shoe is a bit lighter and more flexible. The Ultra Jacquard really ups the ante of how we upgrade our icons by focusing on material, weight, flexibility and comfort. I knew there was a lot of history attached to the 95 and that a lot of people love that style. What I didn’t want to do was change it too much or take it too far from the original. The question was how much is too much. I had already worked on the Air Max 1 Ultra and Air Max 90 Ultra so I brought that mentality to the new project.
Dylan Raasch:
Can you walk us through the major updates/changes in the Air Max 95 Ultra?
Starting at the bottom, we really wanted to slim down the outsole and make it more flexible and lightweight. Unfortunately for this model we had to make a compromise on the forefoot Air-Sole. Initially we said if we kept it, the shoe is going to have a very big stance to it, ultimately we decided we wanted a sleeker profile. With that Air-Sole gone we were free to core out the forefoot, thus improving flexibility and reducing weight. Moving to the upper, we wanted to reduce the six layers of suede to align with the Ultra philosophy. Using no-sew films we were able to get that down to one layer without sacrificing the iconic gradation. The Air Max 95 Ultra has been reinvented from top to bottom but still maintains almost every aspect that was present in the original.
