Black Air Force 1s

Confirmed 183,280

Pittsburgh Steelers @steelers @CoachTomlin Mike Tomlin 9:50 PM Sep 10, 2022 Twitter for iPhone . 1,347 Retweets 484 Quote Tweets 10.4K Likes

liluzivurtmemes @liluzivurtmemes If Black Air Forces took form of a human they'd definitely be 21 Savage

gab @gabbyyloo nissan altimas are the black air forces of the road 7:17 PM Sep 27, 2019 Twitter for iPhone

@naixche Not spending another penny on designer till I get my property, so if u see me out with a Paul's boutique bag and black airforces mind your business xX 6:28 PM Sep 28, 2019 Twitter for iPhone .

Dr. Raymes Franco, P.D. @smash_eat_sleep Eating candy corn is equivalent to wearing black forces 2:06 PM Oct 1, 2019 Twitter for iPhone .

chantel! @reptiliagrl shane dawson constantly repeating "im poor im poor" over and over again when his net worth is $12 million makes me want to put on a pair of black air forces and Rob him 1:24 PM Oct 3, 2019 Twitter for iPhone

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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 at 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).

TOP DEFINITION Black Air Force 1 Anigga who don't give a f--- about his life or future. Your girl: he grabbed my ass You: the n---- in the black Air Force 1 You: we just gonna act like it didn't happen #black #airforcel #blckaf1 #af1 by Loadingglokkz March 07, 2019

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]

Skai @skaijackson If you wear black air forces, especially the high tops, you're crazy 1:57 PM Sep 28, 2019 Twitter for iPhone

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 that the gift provided, receiving over 10,000 likes.^[4]