As architect-turned-shoe-designer Tinker Hatfield started crafting some of the most famous Air Jordan silhouettes of all time in the late 1980s, he was also busy changing tennis sneaker design forever. 

“Phil Knight walked into my office one day many, many years ago and said, ‘Do you know who Andre Agassi is?’ and I said I don’t,” Hatfield says. “He said, ‘Well, you’re going to. We are about to sign this young player and it is going to be your project.’ And then he just left.”

The very next day Hatfield was on a plane to Las Vegas to meet Agassi, and the birth of the famed Air Tech Challenge line soon followed. And it hasn’t gone away. The Air Tech Challenge 2 from 1990, best known for its Hot Lava colorway, has lived on. It has become a popular retro offering, seen a LeBron 16 colorway and the sole was featured on the Nike Air Yeezy 2. But Hatfield was about more than colorways, bringing technology to tennis.