This Sneaker Customizer Did the Unthinkable to the First-Ever Nike Air Max 1 Collab

The atmos x Nike Air Max 1 "Safari" gets a new sole.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Sole-swapped custom sneakers are all the rage these days, but this might actually be one of the more practical mash-ups we've seen.

Sneakerhead @goldtankdawg commissioned one of the best customizers in the game, Dank Customs, to mix his pair of atmos x Air Max 1 "Safaris" with the modern tooling of the Air Max 2015. As @goldtankdawg tells it, he had an extra pair of "Safari" AM1s sitting around and wanted to mix them with another one of his favorites, the 360 Air Max midsole.

The result is a hybrid that many 'heads may find head-scratching, but it's similar to the idea of upgrading coveted sneakers with new technology that Nike has been toying with for years. There's another factor at play here: Considering that the atmos collaboration originally dropped in 2002, it's likely that its polyurethane midsole had begun to deteriorate. Swapping it out for a more current setup could do wonders to extend the life of these, but was it worth altering one of the most sought after collabs of all-time?

In the mean time, check out a pair of "Safaris" in their O.G. glory below: