Introduction
Tinker Linn Hatfield, Jr., (born April 30, 1952, Hillsboro, Oregon)is an American designer of numerous Nike athletic shoe models, including the Air Jordan 3 through Air Jordan 15, the twentieth anniversary Air Jordan XX, the Air Jordan XXIII, the 2010 (XXV), the 2015 Air Jordan XX9 (XXIX), and other athletic sneakers including the world's first "cross training" shoes, the Nike Air Trainer. Hatfield oversees Nike's "Innovation Kitchen". He is Nike's Vice President for Design and Special Projects. For his many innovative designs and numerous creations over more than three decades, Hatfield is considered a legend of design.
Nike
Hatfield joined Nike in 1981, and in 1985 started working on shoe design. He realized that his architectural skills could be applied to shoes. Hatfield was also published for the architectural design of his Portland, Oregon home. He claims to have designed the cross-trainer as a "multi-sport" shoe when he realized people at his Oregon gym brought various sneakers with them for diverse activities such as basketball, aerobics, weightlifting and jogging. In 1987, Tinker Hatfield designed the Air Max 1 Running Shoe after visiting the Centre Georges Pompidou; and in 1990 released the second in the Air Max line, the Air Max 90. In 2014, Hatfield indicated that Nike would unveil a shoe with power-lacing technology, as worn by Marty McFly in the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II, which partially takes place in the year 2015.
He also created the graphic design on the basketball court at the Matthew Knight Arena at the University of Oregon; the facility opened in 2011.
Hatfield's younger brother, Tobie Hatfield, joined Nike in 1990 as a senior engineer.
In 2013, Hatfield worked on both Nike and Jordan brand concept car designs for Gran Turismo 6.
Hatfield was profiled in the first season of the Netflix docu-series Abstract: The Art of Design.
In 2019, Hatfield received his own sneaker, titled the, Nike React "Tinker Hatfield". The shoes were premiered by him at SXSW.
Air Jordans
Tinker Hatfield was the lead designer of Air Jordans III through XV, XX, and XX3. Additionally, Hatfield co-designed Air Jordans 2010 and XXX.
Honors and awards
- One of Sportstyle Magazine's most influential people on the business side of sports, 1993 & 1996
- One of Fortune magazine's "100 Most Influential Designers" of the 20th century, 1998
- Ellis F. Lawrence Medal, University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts, 2008
- Oregon Sports Hall of Fame, Special Contribution to Sport, 2008