March 26th marks the 11th edition of Air Max Day, a commemoration of Nike’s landmark sneakers, celebrating the heritage of the shoes and their legacy within the world of streetwear.
The annual celebration was launched by Nike in 2014 when they decided to acknowledge the anniversary of the very first Air Max – the Nike Air Max Revolution, designed by the legendary Tinker Hatfield.
These trainers contained groundbreaking Air-cushioned technology that have changed the sneaker game since their release in 1987. This kickstarted one of the best-known franchises in existence, cementing Nike’s legacy as a powerhouse of cultural innovation.
Over the years, Air Max Day has welcomed many exclusive drops and colourways from Nike. The Oregon-based company has regularly used the day to springboard new designs, features and competitions, such as the vintage-store-inspired Sean Wotherspoon x Air Max collaboration in 2019 and 2018’s On-Air event which gave six creatives from six different countries a chance to design their very own Air Max.
This willingness from Nike to open the Air Max legacy to outside creatives has resulted in Air Max Day creating something of a cult following and a strong community buzz.
2025 promises to honour this trend, especially since this year is the 10th anniversary of the event’s inception.
In the spirit of Air Max Day, we at JD decided to explore the vast cultural impact of the Air Max franchise, particularly their place in pop culture.
To do this, we isolated five platforms: TikTok, Instagram, film, music and Google. We wanted to see how often Air Max is circled within these channels and find the true extent of the impact that these trainers have on our everyday lives.
Which are the Most Popular Nike Air Max?
We assigned every edition of Air Max an aggregated score out of 10, estimating this score based on the individual metrics received from channels such as TikTok, Instagram, film, music, and Google.
These estimations and subsequent scores give us an overview and insight into which Air Max editions are the most beloved worldwide.
As we interpret this data, we can see a clear leaderboard emerging with the two ends of the table taking shape.
The Air Max 90 seems to be a runaway leader, with an average score of 8.94 out of 10 and clear of second place, the Air Max 95, which could only follow up the 90s lead with its own score of 7.95. This makes the Air Max 90 a resounding winner.
At the opposite end of the table, we have the Air Max 96, which had a score of 0.2.
Most Popular Air Max on TikTok
We begin our deep dive with TikTok. TikTok is the newest medium we investigated, a short-form video platform launched in China in 2016. Since then, TikTok has become a dominant force in social media, with over one billion monthly users.
Our goal was simple: of these one billion using the app monthly, how many uploaded content specifically referring to particular Air Max shoes? We gathered Air Max-related hashtags for our research, compiling them from most to least and best to worst.
The Air Max 90 reigned supreme on TikTok, with #AM90 and other AM90-related hashtags appearing 37, 900 times in our searches. A whopping 37,582 more times than last-placed the Air Max 96, which only appeared 318 times.
Most Popular Air Max on Instagram
Now onto another social media network: Instagram. Here we looked at hashtag views for each silhouette.
The Air Max 90 reigned supreme on Instagram, with #AM90 and other AM90-related hashtags appearing 1.5 million times in our searches. A whopping 1.4 million more times than last-placed the Air Max 93, which only appeared 14,000 times.
Most Popular Air Max on Google
Naturally, this metric came in useful for our investigation. After all, we figured it was safe to assume that search volume generally = popularity.
So we asked Google for a rundown on all our Air Max’s, their synonyms and their abbreviations, and they gave us the following data.
The biggest takeaway from the search volume was the 95s finding itself a hearty competitor, with the Air Max 90s joining the party alongside the 95s, followed by the Air Max 97s and the Air Max 270s.
So, for now, the 95s remained on top, closely followed by the 90s, while the 96s was at the other end of the list with 50 thousand monthly searches.
Most Popular Air Max in Film & TV
Motion pictures, films, movies and talkies… the latest edition to the arsenal of cinema, streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime.
Since these productions reflect the culture, that means fertile ground for Air Max product placement, with our eagle-eyed team spotting Air Max appearances in Barbie, Mission Impossible -Dead Reckoning and The Vince Staples Show, among others.
This time, the Air Max 90s pulled ahead, winning this category, and leaving the 95s far behind. The 95s sat way behind in joint 4th – with ZERO appearances – alongside the Air Max 270, 96, 98, Vapormax, and Air Max 1.
Most Popular Air Max in Music
Music and song lyrics are probably the most far-reaching and universal medium of them all. Since the invention of the record player in the 1920s, recorded music has permeated our lives with force, from the musicians’ strikes in the 20s – all the way to our current favourite streaming platforms like Spotify and Tidal.
We scoured song lyrics from popular music, finding mentions from Artists such as Earl Sweatshirt, Dizzee Rascal, The Game & Nas.
Though the winner of this round was close, it was once again the Air Max 90s that came out on top in the music category with a winning total of 224 mentions. Second was again the perpetual runners-up, the Air Max 95s, who took silver with 178 mentions.
The Verdict
In conclusion, the Air Max 90s are everybody’s favourite Air Max. They are found most frequently in our daily lives, media and culture, and are loved for the iconic Air Max-shaped dents they have stamped upon the world.
Ready to celebrate Air Max Day this year? Explore our huge range of Air Max trainers for men, women and kids right here, including JD-exclusive colourways of the Air Max 95.
Methodology
Index looked at five data points: TikTok hashtag numbers, Instagram hashtag numbers, Air Max on film and TV over the past year, Air Max mentions in song lyrics, as well as search demand.
Each of the scores from each data point was then ranked using the normalised score (the highest score being 1 and the lowest being 0) – all four scores for each trainer were then averaged and multiplied by 10 to get a score out of 10.
Data correct as of March 2025.
