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The last four decades have blessed us with many iterations of one particular all-time best-seller. From luxury materials to innovative design alterations, this iconic shoe - born in ’82 and often imitated but never duplicated -really has seen it all.

How do you make a perfect shoe even better? With a little bit of ‘lux’. In 2001, the Air Force 1 was ‘Made in Italy’ with a luxurious, buttery soft leather upper that you can smell when you open the box. This was the start of something that would change the shoe forever.

Cooked up in the Innovation Kitchen in 2002, this one-piece Air Force 1’s upper served as a blank canvas on which Mark Smith could push the boundaries of art and design by giving it the full laser treatment. Only five pairs of this sample pair are rumoured to exist.

2011 presented the future of sneaker technology. The introduction of the latest innovation to a much-loved icon like the Air Force 1 was risky, but the use of incredibly lightweight and seamless Hyperfuse made this pair an underrated classic.

With innovation still the name of the game, 2012 saw the Air Force 1’s midsole altered for the first time, 30 years after its birth. The Lunar Force 1 was an instant hit, and while there are several iterations of the shoe, this Fragment collab remains one of the rarest and most desirable.

2012 brought another midsole update in the form of Air Max. We knew the Air Force 1 had an Air Unit, but we hadn’t seen a full-length one before. Hot on the heels of the London Games came the Air Force 1 Max ‘MedalStand’, and that 3M upper looked extra flashy when athletes’ pictures were taken.

It took another four years for a Flyknit Air Force 1 to surface. It was the lightest AF-1 to date, thanks to revolutionary materials and an Ultra midsole. The Air Force 1 and Flyknit communities came together to celebrate this forward-thinking take on the biggest icon in Nike history.

Inside The Vault: Air Force 1 40th Anniversary Reimagined