I waited 25 years to meet Andre Agassi and talk sneakers

They asked me if I could speak to Agassi on the road while he was preparing. It wasn’t ideal, but I had to make do with what I was given.

I only had a few minutes to talk to him, and for about half the time I explained to him why it meant so much to me. He seemed delighted to learn my story, joking that I looked “complex” before confessing everything.

I needed to get some info on sneakers because that’s what I know everyone wants to read about.

The biggest topic was the re-release of the Air Tech Challenge 2, a sneaker that seems to come around every five years or so at this point.

“I mean, I love it. I mean, it’s like bringing back a piece of history and a piece of my life,” Agassi said. “I’ve enjoyed this whole journey with Nike and being very intimately involved in its design, giving my feedback, and then watching it come to life and seeing how people reacted at the time. And then see him come back.

Naturally, Agassi, now 54, looks a lot different than he did at the height of his playing career in the ’90s. The shoulder-length hair and beard are long gone, in favor of a bald head and a clean shave. He jokes, however, that if his sneakers can come back into fashion, so could his fashion sense.

“I literally thought recently, damn, if I live long enough, maybe even the mullet will come back,” he said. “And sure enough, I was in Australia and the mullet comes back. I don’t know if I should feel proud or guilty, but in any case, the shoes, one hundred percent proud.

One of Agassi’s most famous looks that has yet to return is the Nike denim shorts he performed in. Fans have been begging for a re-release of these. We even hoped they would be included in this Air Tech Challenge 2 retro. But Agassi says that’s not happening.