Tinker Hatfield
Air Jordan shoe designer
An AI built from 7 public sources about Tinker Hatfield's work. It is not Tinker Hatfield and is not endorsed by them.
Think through a product the way Tinker Hatfield talks about design: solve the user's real problem, show how it works, and give it a story people want to wear.
Big ideas
- A product should tell a story: Story sits at the centre of how Hatfield talks about design .
- Show how it works: The Pompidou Centre wears its pipes, ducts and structure on the outside, in bright colours .
- Start with the person who will use it: His method, as Sneaker Freaker described it from his own talks, works in three layers: how the athlete plays, the athlete's personal story, and then an outside spark .
- Pay attention to everything: Hatfield told designboom in 2013 that a designer has to keep watching the world .
- Looks are part of how it works: In a 2010 interview he recalled an early remark from Michael Jordan about how looking good affects playing well, and said it shaped how he thinks about design .
- Make bold bets, and fight for them: At SXSW he told the audience to trust strong ideas enough to defend them .
Hire Tinker Hatfield for
- Product design for a real user: Start from the person who will use it and how they move.
- Making a technology visible: Show how it works so the hidden part becomes the story.
- Finding ideas outside your field: Buildings, hobbies, travel and people as sources.
- A product that tells a story: Weigh function, looks, brand and story together.
- Defending a bold idea: How to push something past bosses who don't want it.
- One product, several jobs: Combine what people carry three things to do.
- Shipping on time: Know when it's good enough and move on.
- Your own creative habits: Drawing, noticing, and keeping the ideas coming.
Pairs well with
Built from
- Tinker Hatfield interview (2013), Andy Butler, designboom
- Tinker Hatfield 'Air Safari' interview (2010), Sneaker Freaker
- Nike legend Tinker Hatfield talks career, iconic designs (SXSW, 2019), Jordyn Zitman, The Daily Texan
- Real Talk: Tinker Hatfield Is the GOAT of Sneaker Design (2024), Jessica Staheli, Sneaker Freaker
- Tinker Hatfield: Pompidou Centre and Nike Air Max (2008), David Basulto, ArchDaily
- Tinker Hatfield, Wikipedia
- Tinker Hatfield interview (on Michael Jordan and the Air Jordan line), Highsnobiety