Nike came out with the first version of the Air Rifts in the mid 90's. I was working at Footlocker during the summer in college and saw my first pair. They were lace ups. A guy came in with them. You had to buy special socks for them, as they were split toe, like Ostriches or mimicking the Kenyan barefoot runners. I believe Nike was the first to mass produce such a design in Running shoes, the Huraches were the forebearers, they were experiments in minimalism. Then came the Air Prestos and the Second gen Air Rifts (I own three pairs of the 2nd gen, one pair of the Air Prestos), then the Nike Free 5.0's, which were trying to mimick the natural movement of the foot, and were minimalistic in design (I have a pair, and they
are not durable).
In terms of comfort, the Prestos were the most, followed by the Frees, the Air Rifts the least, because you have to get used to your big toe being seperated from the foot, and it's worse with their special socks. The first gen shoes are very hard to find, almost non-esixtant. I've owned alot of their experimental shoes. Huraches, Frees, Pumps, Zoom Air, Tuned Air, Shox, Combos of technology (Shox and Air, etc). Some are gimmicks, but most are functional technology that Nike spends millions, if not billions into research.
Their research in Carbonfiber was the reason why they were the first to put Carbonfiber in Jordans.
They spent considerable money bending and breaking pieces, trying to use them as springs. As you probably know Catbonfibet is mostly used for race cars and high end exotics. It's lighter and stronger than steel and is used for lightweight applications. But it is expensive to produce. More so back when Nike was experimenting with it. Each piece must be made in a autoclave, heating the carbon weaves in a a resin, then letting it cool and set in place.
So, you can imagine the money that Nike was throwing into research of this material---no gimmickry with that.
Yep, they did their research due to the Stanford running team @ the time was running without shoes even though Nike was supplying them for free, all they needed.
the ones I saw were not lace up, but straps. Anyway it seems to me we are on the same page as the importance of a shoe that mimics our foot as close as possible.
Doing a little more research on the subject looks to be that it was Nike that parented the idea that barefoot running is essential for a strong base,
Vibram looked to improve on that idea.
God I remember the Air huaraches & were such a sweet shoe for the era. Lightest shoe @ the time I think.
One of my carbonfiber J's
