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Forget the limits of ordinary basketball shoes. You’ve entered a weightless environment of the Nike Flight Dimension.
Welcome to today’s Nice Kicks’ Throwback Thursday, where we once again return to the golden era of Nike basketball footwear, the 1990s. This edition pays tribute to yet another long-lost, forgotten Nike basketball gem from the mid-90s, a sneaker which at one point was considered the darling among NBA guards: the 1994 Nike Air Swift.
With an original production date range of 12-02/93 (inside tag reads 931202IB), the Air Swift was part of the Nike Flight collection of basketball sneakers for its lightweight design and secure fit by its Huarache inner-boot. The Air Swift was a very basic style sneaker by design and is often overlooked by casual Nike basketball enthusiasts today, particularly when compared to other models of the time including the Air Dynamic Flight, Air Force High, Air Maestro, Air Force Max CB, Air Raid, and the Air Jordan 8, to name a few.
Despite its reserved, basic silhouette, the Air Swift saw a great deal of action on the NBA hardwood, worn by a plethora of guards during the 1993/1994 NBA season including Dan Majerle, Ron Harper, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Malik Sealy and others. Grant Hill also wore this silhouette in the black/blue colorway during his playing days at Duke, signifying the versatility and popularity of the Air Swift at both the collegiate and professional levels.
The Air Swift is perhaps most notably remembered for its appearance in the 1994 NBA Finals, as it was worn throughout the epic seven-game series by rookie point guard, Sam Cassell of the Houston Rockets and Derek Harper, the starting point guard of the New York Knicks. More importantly, however, the Air Swift acquired legendary sneaker status when it served as the model worn by Scottie Pippen in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Knicks and his signature dunk over Patrick Ewing. Pippen’s pair in the classic Chicago Bulls colorway also featured the handwritten letters, “4PEAT” in black permanent marker along the lateral aspect of each shoe as a tribute to the Bulls’ quest for a fourth consecutive championship.
Complex Magazine recently ranked the Nike Air Swift as the best sneaker worn during the 1994 NBA Finals as well as one of the Top 10 sneakers worn during the most memorable moments in the 1990s Bulls era, signifying its everlasting impact on sneaker culture, particularly among old school basketball enthusiasts. Nike recently retroed the Air More Uptempo with Pippen’s number 33 as a tribute to his memorable dunk over Ewing, complete with a special logo on the insole.
It was the Air Swift, not the More Uptempo, however, that continues to haunt the hearts, minds and “soles” of old school Knicks fans around the world from that fateful game and iconic dunk by Pippen.
The Nike Flight Dimension lives on.
