In praise of the Nike Air Presto sneaker.

Looking at the form-fitting minimalism of the modern running shoe, it’s clear that there’s a significant debt owed to Nike’s Air Presto design. This experiment in sleight of foot debuted in 2000 as a curiously deconstructed, stretch neoprene oddity. But it’s now gone beyond mere cult status to become a bestseller. In anticipation of the arrival of its latest iteration, the Air Presto Flyknit, which lands on MR PORTER next week, we thought it high time we paid tribute to this quietly influential sneaker.

Beyond a lineage of trying to reduce weight and bulk that has been part of Nike’s process since its foundation in 1972, the Nike Presto project’s roots go back to 1996 when footwear developer and keen runner Mr Tobie Hatfield – now Nike’s senior director of athlete innovation – began experimenting with methods of slipper-like comfort and a new kind of fit. The discovery that a cut-out v-shaped notch on a first prototype made a size 9 shoe into a good fit for a size 11 tester unlocked a new method of accommodating the foot.

Shortly after this, in 1999, Nike launched the Alpha Project, a series of imaginative products that combined thought-provoking looks with technological innovation and future-defining solutions to improving performance. The final iteration of the Air Presto surfaced a year later as one of the most accessible Alpha Project releases. Its dynamic stretch mesh provided sock-like comfort, while moulded midfoot support overlays and a toecap provided just enough stability and structure. Billed as a “T-shirt for the foot” with appropriately strange advertising and colour combinations (why use black and yellow when “brutal honey” will do?), the original sizing scrapped numbers in favour of a 3XS to 3XL range.

Immediately finding favour with Japanese shoe connoisseurs (including sneaker design legend Mr Hiroshi Fujiwara), fêted by the style press and ultimately making an impact on British high streets, the Air Presto sold well.

By 2001, the Nike Presto line was expanded to become its own category. The Air Faze built on the existing design for runners and triathletes, while the Chanjo was intended as a casual or post-race wear. The Presto Cage was sold as a shoe to wear to or from the court and the Air Trainer Escape was the Presto aesthetic bolstered for cross training. The Presto even entered the Air Max line, with the Air Max Tremble offering Visible Air and a stretch fit.

In 2002 the Presto project expanded further. The Air Presto Footent running shoe was billed as the line’s concept car, with its eye-catching micro-mesh shroud for lightweight protection. A quick-fastening Air Presto Zip incorporated a saddle-like upper design that was devoid of cage. The Air Presto Gym training shoe implemented a 3D engineered mesh, plus an integrated outrigger, while the Air Presto World was a simpler running takedown of the innovation. Other eccentric spin-offs included the Presto Glide and Presto Click, while the new HTM project from Messrs Fujiwara, Tinker Hatfield and Mark Parker would include the Presto Roam, a heightened trail take on the design that dropped quietly and in extremely low numbers.

During the Air Presto’s development, the seeds of other shoes emerged. The now popular Sock Dart design, which would help pioneer precision knitted uppers, was a byproduct of work in Nike’s Innovation Kitchen facility. When Flyknit premiered in early 2012, its commitment to precision woven fit was an evolution of the work Hatfield and his team had helmed. Given that process of more through less, this season’s mid-cut Nike Air Presto Ultra Flyknit feels like a logical progression with lifestyle wear in mind.

The Nike Air Presto Flyknit is now available on MR PORTER.