Nobody gives sneaker midsole technologies too much thought but you should – it’s the shock absorber comes between your feet and a hard place. Here are our favorite sneaker midsole technologies of today.

By Rashid Rahman & Haikal Abu Bakar

1) Nike Air

The first person who took the phrase “walking on air” literally was aerospace engineer, M. Frank Rudy, who introduced to footwear companies the idea of incorporating “inert gas encapsulated in polyurethane plastic” into running shoes for cushioning.

While most companies rejected the idea as being too costly and too troublesome to implement, Nike saw its potential, thus embarking on a 9-month project fine tuning the technology and reviewing its shoe manufacturing process.

In 1979, the Nike Air was finally born. The first model to have Nike Air incorporated in the midsole cushioning was the Nike Air Tailwind.

In 1987, Nike further Air-volutionized its midsole technologies by incorporating visible Air bags into sneakers, thus was the Nike Air Max 1 born. Fast forward to this year, the Air Max 2013 combines Nike’s hyperfuse and flywire technology to create the most flexible Air Max to date.