Tinker Haven 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.
Early life
Hatfield grew up in Halsey in Linn County, Oregon, "son of the late Tinker Hatfield Sr., a legendary figure in Oregon coaching circles who won three straight state Class AA titles during his son’s time at Central Linn." Tinker Jr. was an all-state selection as a basketball player and football player, and he was an All-American in track and field at Central Linn High School, leading to him being named the "1970 Johnny Carpenter Prep Athlete of the Year" for Oregon high schoolers. He then attended the University of Oregon, where he ran track for coach and Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman, and at one time had the pole-vault record at the school. Academically, he studied architecture and graduated with a B.Arch. degree from the University of Oregon School of Architecture.
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 the Infrared Air Max 90 shoe, first released in 1990. 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.
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
Further reading
- Keates, Nancy. 2009. "Summer Camp Comes Home: In Idaho, a top Nike designer and his wife build mess-hall memories," Wall Street Journal, October 23
- Plummer, Eric. 2011. "Tinker Hatfield: Nike vice president of design and Air Jordan architect", Sandpoint Magazine, Summer
References
