The Air Force 1 is the most successful sneaker Nike has ever made, and it got there by nearly disappearing.

Bruce Kilgore designed it in late 1982, built around an Air Sole unit that Nike claimed cushioned shock 30 percent better and returned 20 percent more energy than a standard shoe. The name came from the presidential aircraft, which tells you how the brand saw it: flagship technology, top of the line. It was a high-top, it was worn on court, and Nike at the time had no real interest in reissuing shoes once their run ended.

What saved it was retail. Nike kept the shoe alive through a rotating program of exclusive colorways sold by a small, deliberately chosen set of stores, remembered now as the Color of the Month. The version of the story that circulates in sneaker culture credits three Baltimore shops with pushing Nike to do it, and Nike has since honored those retailers by name, though the brand’s own account of the program differs on both its title and its start date. Either way, a shoe that should have faded out became a regional staple, then a New York staple, then a default.

The low is the version that won. Kilgore drew a high-top, and the mid still exists, but the Air Force 1 Low in white on white became the shoe people buy when they are not thinking about sneakers at all. That is a strange destination for a performance basketball model, and it explains why the silhouette carries collaborations that would look absurd on anything else. The shape is so neutral it can absorb almost any idea, from ostrich leather to a full deconstruction, and still read as an Air Force 1.

It also explains the volume. Nike has never really stopped making it, the tooling is long since paid for, and a white pair moves at a rate most silhouettes never touch. That is why the release calendar for this model is relentless in a way that Dunks and Jordans are not. Most Air Force 1 releases are not events. They are inventory, and the interesting ones stand out precisely because of the wall of white leather behind them.

This page tracks every Air Force 1 we cover, high, mid and low, general releases and collaborations together, because splitting them by cut hides the thing worth seeing: which ideas the shape is being asked to carry this season. Each entry carries the release date, the retail price, the style code, and where to buy.

By Nick Engvall, founder of becausesneakers and Sneaker History.