Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 1:17 pm  |  12 responses

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New Unis/Sneak Peak Premiere!

Atlanta gets its rouge back, Nike Maxes out the Hyperize.

by Sandy Dover

It’s not official yet, but the well-informed Paul of UniWatch continues to bring some of the good stuff to seekers of knowledge in the world of athletic apparel. You know how the Atlanta Hawks suddenly changed their red and goldenrod colors out the blue (or into the blue), and used Spider-Man (of all people) to explain why they made the switch? If you don’t remember that but have seen the blue and white uniforms that they’ve played in the past two seasons, it was explained to the public that Atlanta was going to the past to for inspiration and a new direction by way of appearance. Using the St. Louis Hawks era as a point of reference and influence, the Hawks sent the red to the background and began to use blue in the foremost images of the Hawks franchise.

Lucky for me, I conjured up the plans of Dominique & Co. and saw where they are now going to introduce their alternate uniforms–it’s red again! I can personally say that I’m delighted to see the new uniforms and red should always be a part of the Hawks aesthetic, principally. Without getting too retro or going far out, Atlanta kept it simple and just re-blocked the color from their home and away duds and paid homage to the city’s nickname, with the tackle twill city being sewed on largely as “ATL.”

It could just be me, but I’m still adjusting to see an Atlanta Hawks uniform that doesn’t have the yellow as a part of the jersey–or black for that matter. It’s a pretty decent look overall, so the complaints are at a bare minimum. While I like the design of the jersey in general, for Atlanta, I prefer the old scoopneck jersey cut, and I prefer that the secondary logo be removed from the shorts altogether, as I think it cheapens the look of the hawk on the primary logo, but that just a couple of cents that will probably go down the drain.

Onto another Premiere in the Sneak Peak series (with more features in the Wonder Years segment upcoming) is the Nike Air Max Hyperize. In what could be another gold pot for the Hyperdunk-Hyperize-Air Max 360 series, the Air Max Hyperize is essentially the best of two worlds in the Nike Family, with the upper being composed of the Nike Hyperize and the bottom of the Nike Air Max LeBron VII.

The look of the shoe–in a pseudo-Marty McFly promo sample colorway–is absolutely magnificent and is sure to offer a more premium feel underfoot, even more so than its current incarnation of the Nike Hypermax, a Force-like version of the Hyperdunk. Given all the merits of the Air Max LeBron and the abilities for multiple players of many sizes to wear the shoes, that the Air Max Hyperize will share that common footing literally will prove to give itself even more appeal to performance wearers and sneakerheads alike.

Bestowed with a microsuede and Flywire upper, a full-length Phylon midsole and the new basketball-specific 360 Max Air (which is NOT the same as the regular, conventional Max Air bags), the Air Max Hyperize sounds as if it’ll be able to simultaneously be plush and absorb ridiculous amounts of shock from the high-impact movements on the court. The only real thing of note–and this is for all the sneaker tech junkies out there–is that unlike the Air Max LeBron VII, which utilizes a combination foam midsole of Nike’s standard Phylon and Cushlon foam between the upper and the outsole, the new Hyperize only contains the Phylon (which is only a minor takedown from the signature shoe).

One thing is for sure, considering the so-so reviews for the LunarLite foam being in the previous models of the Zoom Kobe IV, Hyperdunk and Hyperize, that the Swoosh has updated the Air Max 360 unit without giving up the weight will allow fans of the original Hyperize to transition to the new model if the Zoom Air-LunarLite is not substantial enough for their movement on the hardwood (although considering the sheer amount of NBA players of multiple sizes wearing the regular “Zoom” Hyperize–Blake Griffin, Jameer Nelson and Dirk Nowitzki–a Max version of the ‘Rize may not be necessary).

No word on the release in the United States–another special thanks to Andrew for the intel.

Sandy Dover is a novelist/writer, artist, fitness enthusiast, as well as an unrepentant Prince fan (for real). You can find Sandy frequently here at SLAMonline, as well as at Associated Content and Twitter.