Black Air Force 1s
About
Black Air Force 1s are a type of sneaker produced by Nike. On Black Twitter, the shoes are associated with shady characters and criminals.
Origin
Jokes about Black Air Force 1s being associated with shady characters began in the beginning of 2018. On December 18th, 2018, YouTuber RDCworld1 published the video "3 SIGNS YOU'RE ABOUT TO FIGHT A CRAZY NIGGA." The first reason is wearing black Air Force 1s. The post received more than 1.7 million views in less than three years (shown below).
Spread
On February 23rd, Twitter user @DomTheGoat5 posted a clip of the Lil B song "Bill Bellamy" in which the rapper says "I got one felony, I got two felonies" etc., writing a Nobody joke about people with the shoe (shown below). The tweet gained over 9,600 retweets and 24,000 likes.
Nobody:
People with black Air Force 1’s: pic.twitter.com/oKcNABdkGE— Dominic🏄🏽♂️ (@DomTheGoat5) February 23, 2019
On March 7th, Urban Dictionary user Loadingglokkz defined the term as "A nigga who don’t give a fuck about his life or future"[1] (shown below).
Over the following year, many Twitter users continued to joke about the stereotype of the shoe. For example, on September 28th, Skye Jackson tweeted "If you wear black air forces, especially the high tops, you’re crazy," gaining over 1,100 likes (shown below, top). On October 1st, Twitter user @ayyeechristian noted how a viral video skit about a dancing Chick-Fil-A employee featured Black Air Force 1s, gaining over 600 retweets (shown below, bottom). Memes about the shoes were covered by StayHipp.[2]
My man had the black Air Forces on, I knew he was about to kill something https://t.co/7YZEJzYUPX
— PAPAS (@ayyeechristian) October 1, 2019
Steelers Receiving Black Air Force 1s
On Saturday, September 10th, 2022 it was reported that members of the Pittsburgh Steelers professional football team had all received a pair of Black Air Force 1s from coach Mike Tomlin.[3] Because the 140-some shoes needed for the team were not immediately available, Tomlin hired a local artist to repaint Nike shoes that were originally in a different color. The team wore the shoes on a flight to play their first game against the Bengals.
The team's official Twitter posted about the "Black Air Force" energy which the gift provided, receiving over 10,000 likes.[4]
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Urban Dictionary – Black Air Force 1
[2] Stayhipp – BLACK AIR FORCE 1 MEMES
[3] Pittsburgh Post Gazette – Steelers players get black Air Force 1 shoes for 2022 season
[4] Twitter – "":
Top Comments
Douk
Oct 07, 2019 at 10:35PM EDT in reply to
Mace121
Oct 07, 2019 at 07:21PM EDT