The Nike Air Rift debuted in 1996, and to many people, it was a monstrosity. These days, they’re beloved by people reaching for ’90s nostalgia or on those discovering them for the first time
I can pull off. The amount of footwear options out there is overwhelming, and in NYC especially, a lot can be discerned about a person from their sneaker choices — which is why I’ve returned to the sneakers that have been working for me since I first understood my personal style as a teen. The Nike Air Rift debuted in 1996, and to many people, it was a monstrosity. With a separated toe like a cloven hoof and chunky rubber soles, they were neither feminine nor “cool.
These days, I’m no longer alone in my Rift adoration and am seeing more and more pairs on NYC streets, either on people reaching for ’90s nostalgia or on those discovering them for the first time. They’re an unexpected approach to theand the ideal shoe for when the weather is too chilly for sandals but too sunny for boots.
My own journey to Air Rifts has not been entirely straightforward. As an extremely tall 12-year-old girl , I regularly got made fun of for wearing “high waters.” Extra-long inseams weren’t common at the time. And my parents, completely unaware of the peer pressure that dominated the NYC preteen social scene, regularly bought me Avias and knockoff “Keds” at Woolworths.
By high school, though, I’d found my style: “backpack raver” with a bit of preppy and vintage thrown in. I listened to jungle, drum and bass, anything on the Rawkus label. And since mostwere too short, I wore Army-surplus parachute pants purchased at Canal Jeans on Broadway topped off with an oversize North Face jacket. Still, finding the right footwear to fit my look was challenging.
I can’t remember exactly when the sneaker and streetwear shop Transit came on the scene, but there was nothing like it. We’d had VIM and other jeans and sneaker stores before, but Transit quickly became the coolest place to shop for streetwear: There were vintage turnstiles and a subway carthe store. The internet existed, but it was nothing like what we have today, so most often you were seeing these shoes there for the first time. Imagine that sense of pure discovery and awe.
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