People who managed to purchase a pair of Air Jordan sneakers during the 1990s have are huge chance that they were wearing a Tinker Hatfield creation. In a recent historic discussion about the Air Jordan XIII on the pop culture website The Undefeated, it has been revealed that the Air Jordan XIII was the very first Nike sneaker that Tinker Hatfield designed on a computer.

How the Air Jordan was born

In 1996, Hatfield used a computer to design the Air Jordan XIII for the same common reason that anyone uses a computer during that period - he was tired of using his own hand. Hatfield sketched numerous drafts before taking to Mark Smith from Nike's graphics department to bring his thoughts into digital life.

Hatfield used Macintosh

According to Yahoo! Sports, Hatfield claimed that a lot of the refinements were done on a Macintosh machine, which was a secret that was previously only known by the people at Apple. "It's very likely that it's the first shoe in our entire business that was designed on a computer, using Illustrator and Photoshop," Hatfield said.

The very first Air Jordan designed on a computer was also the lightest one at that point and featured a 3D hologram. At that point, it was one of the more technologically impressive Air Jordan sneakers.

How the Air Jordan XIII made history

Though it was the first computer-designed Air Jordans, the Air Jordan XIII made history in other ways. When it was officially released in 1997, it was also the very first sneaker under the newly created Jordan Brand subsidiary of Nike, which was also the very first time that Nike ever gave a sports player his very own clothing brand.

The Future of Kicks

Hatfield now is currently Nike's vice president of creative concepts, as well as the mastermind behind Nike's latest technological breakthrough, The Nike Hyperadapt 1.0 self-lacing sneakers. According to SneakersNews, he originally designed the alleged self-lacing sneakers that were inspired by the 1988 film, "Back To The Future."

He and a team of Nike designers worked on developing the Nike Hyperadapt 1.0 between 2005-2016, a feat that Hatfield keeps close to his heart.

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