I normally chronicle a basketball sneaker in the
Kicks Series posts, but one of the craziest looking footwear creations was actually born on the gridiron with the Deion Sanders inspired Nike Air Diamond Turf (DT) Max kicks. These came out in 1996 when "Neon Deion" was the best shutdown corner in the NFL. Opposing teams didn't even throw toward the side of the field that Sanders was lurking. Was it the shoes that helped make Sanders so great. Not likely. Although the DT Max kicks are pretty sweet looking, Deion was a bona fide superstar before that '96 season. However, Sanders and the Dallas Cowboys did win Super Bowl XXX that year. I'm just saying… they're pretty good looking sneakers and it takes more than just sweat and hard work. It takes some fly looking kicks to get things done sometimes.
No question, the most interesting design element of these Diamond Turf kicks is the tiger stripes or waves depending on your perspective. They're wild and abrasive just like Deion was. The visible Air Max mid sole is always cool too on Nike's creations. These sneakers were originally released in '96, but have been re- released as retro's. They came out just a couple of weeks ago for $125 with a few slight changes to the original design. The upper (Upper: Sneakerhead lingo for top part of the shoe/sneaker that holds the foot to the mid sole) has some always popular patten leather on the versions with a white background in the color schemes (In the case of the images from this post, the white and red Diamond Turfs). Another change is the lack of Deion Sanders image on the visible Air Max pocket on the bottom heel of the outer sole. I'm assuming this is because Nike no longer has an agreement with "Prime Time".
Speaking of Nike agreements, Deion was a spokesman for Nike all through the 90's. As a two-sport star and general load mouth, Sanders was a
prime candidate to be a pitchman for Nike. It also didn't hurt that when the stadium lights were turned on, Deion's neon never shined brighter. Here's a YouTube clip of Sanders promoting the Nike Air DT Max:
Sweet shoes... and although I hated the Cowboys... I liked that commercial back in the day.
ReplyDeleteThe best Nike shoe's besides the Jordans I have collected. I am a Gastroenterology Surgeon ,and I am originally from Florida same county as Deon, and I have every color that I wear with my scrubs, my patients get a kick out of the Red ones, but great shoes, oyeah I have 8 pair,
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