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The early 2000s saw the introduction of a game-changing new production process which drastically cut the standard 18- to 24-month lead time of Nike shoe releases down to a mere six months. The name of this innovative new approach? Quickstrike.

One of the earliest Quickstrike Air Force 1s is 2000’s 'Puerto Rico', which dropped a week before New York’s annual Puerto Rican Day Parade and was sold exclusively in Spanish Harlem before becoming available to the wider public.

The Air Force 1 and hip-hop would be nowhere without journalism, and Quickstrike was used to honour Vibe Magazine on their 10th birthday in 2003 with this centrefold-worthy friends and family AF-1, inspired by the publication’s first issue and limited to just 50 pairs.

Stash’s 2003 Air Force 1 was Quickstriked in only a thousand pairs to shops in three cities. Each numbered pair features his nozzle cap print and came in a steel flight case. This collab is widely considered one of the most significant AF-1 releases of all time.

This Quickstrike work of art was made to mark the release of The Black Album and given to friends and family of the renowned but now defunct Roc-a-Fella Records, with only two pairs signed by the ‘only rapper to rewrite history without a pen’.

This rare 2005 Air Force 1 was the first-ever Black History Month issue. Quickstrike was used to create the symbolic incarnation, with all hundred pairs going to one of the only black-owned stores in the States at the time: PHLI. It features the Pan African flag, which represents black liberation.

When music legend DJ Clark Kent does anything, he gets busy - and that’s exactly what he did when creating this 2008 Air Force 1 with 3M, elephant print and volt accents. The shoe was first released via giveaways before seeing a wider drop later on.

Inside the Vault: Special with A-DNA - Quickstrike Air Force 1's 