Premium Goods Founder Clarence Nathan Discusses His Super-limited Nike Air Max 1 and Working With Clark Kent

Clarence Nathan, founder of Premium Goods, is frank when discussing the feedback of his Brooklyn boutique’s forthcoming Nike Air Max 1 collaboration.

“I’d like to think people like the shoe, but then it’s, like, there’s only 718 pairs,” he said on a video call the week prior to the sneaker’s release. “Do you like it because there’s only 718 pairs or do you like it because you like it?”

The Premium Goods x Nike Air Max 1 Nathan is discussing is actually one of two versions of the kicks releasing in conjunction with each other. There’s the Brooklyn version coming from his store of 23 years, made with 718 pairs to commemorate the New York City area code and releasing July 18 (i.e. 7/18). Then there’s the Houston variant, which released through a sister-store owned by Jennifer Ford and was likewise pegged to the city’s area code.

Teams at the two locations mostly worked separately on their designs, but you can say a shared spirit produced complementary end results. Both opt for a playful array of colors and a change-up in materials, and they also share Premium Goods heel branding. ’02 and ’04, the years the two stores opened, appear across the two tongue tags with their respective locales then printed on the mismatched insoles.

White perforated leather serves as the base of the toe for the Brooklyn iteration, giving way to suede and leather paneling in green, blue, red, yellow and khaki. Zooming in on the metallic silver Swoosh and tongue, you can make out a faint honeycomb pattern intended to represent spacesuits and NASA’s connection to Houston, where its human spaceflight center is based.

Nathan chose the color palette as a nod to the bold hues that characterized New York City hip-hop fashion in the ’90s, including pieces from Polo Ralph Lauren, The North Face and Tommy Hilfiger.

He also cites as inspiration the Volkswagen Golf Harlequin, a car that was much-maligned at the time for coming out of the factory with four different colors decorating its panels. Now, it’s a collector’s item, with one of only 264 cars produced having sold for $25,000 at auction in 2022, nearly twice its MSRP from 1996.

“There’s a generation of people that just get it,” Nathan said. “They’re from the ’90s and they automatically get it.”

Using premium materials was also a priority for Nathan, as he wants customers to feel like they’re getting fair value out of the $180 investment. He urged Nike to give him the softest materials possible, marking an upgrade from the standard Air Max 1 and doing away with its standard mesh base.

With this material change, along with Houston’s Air Max 1 inclusion of another untraditional fabric in denim, came some trepidation on behalf of Nike because it would complicate production. But a compromise was reached by forgoing a third edition exclusive to friends and family.

Another diversion can be found on the tongue, which leaves its foam exposed on the sides. Nathan acknowledges that some might see Virgil Abloh’s seminal “The Ten” collection as an influence, but he insists he just wanted to include a detail that harkens back to Nike’s ’70s running shoes.

Premium Goods revealed its two Air Max 1s near the end of June at Paris Fashion Week, and Nathan stashed his personal pair in the city for a lucky person to find as an homage to his late friend DJ Clark Kent, the legendary hip-hop producer and sneakerhead who would often engage in the same practice.

Nathan solicited feedback from DJ Clark Kent throughout the design process prior to his passing last fall, and the original plan was for him to be involved in the rollout in Paris.

“He was a part of helping me navigate all this,” said Nathan. “He was able to make sure I didn’t jump off the edge. He’s still with us, he’s just not here, though. So we’re still trying to hold him down up until the release, and we’re still thinking about him.”

The release itself will only go down in person at Premium Good’s Brooklyn store on a first come, first serve basis. Nathan doesn’t anticipate the crowds getting too rowdy, and he says Nike is very much interested in recapturing the on-the-ground excitement that informed the earlier days of sneaker culture prior to raffles.

Nathan may even pop up somewhere the night prior to give out, say, 50 priority access wristbands, so it’ll be worth keeping an eye out on the boutique’s Instagram for any such announcements.

“If we sell 300, 400 [pairs the first day] I’ll be happy,” he said. “I highly doubt 700 people gonna come out at once, so you’ll be able to get them.”