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In Search of… The HOLY GRAIL.

You will never hear me refer to a pair of tennis shoes as simply sneakers. Although I may use that term for shorthand, tennis shoes are far from sneakers. The tennis shoe was one of the first pieces of specialized athletic footwear to address the damage that a shoe suffers on the upper portion. Sure most sneakers receive the greatest amount of wear at the sole but for a professional tennis athlete the upper portion of their footwear must be able to withstand considerable stress and friction.

En route to 14 Grand Slam championships, including a record seven wins at Wimbledon, PETE SAMPRAS has run through many a tennis shoe. However, there was one shoe that NIKE created that even PETE could not destroy.

The NIKE Air Resistance might be the strongest sneaker ever made. The soles are made with a special NIKE ‘Regrind’ rubber which is a composite rubber made from recycled sneaker soles. NIKES premium leather is accented at the toe box with DuPont’s ‘Kevlar’ material.

As usual, NIKE spared no expense on the design end of this prouct. They created a stable and comfortable heel cup but then scalloped the ankle area for a full range of free movement. There is a visible Air unit under the heel and the sole cantilevers at the arch. The shoes are made for the athlete that moves on the court as fast as he thinks. I have a pair of the OG 1995 models that I have worn from jump and the soles show no wear. They are almost too good to sell. These shoes are both bombproof and bulletproof. So if you ever see the Air Resistance on the street make sure that you just don’t call them sneakers.