Ever wondered how Nike makes the Nike Air Foamposite One? Eh, okay. Probably not. Unless you’re really into sneakers—as in, so into them that you need to know exactly how they’re made in order to enjoy wearing them—you probably don’t give two you-know-whats how Foamposites are made. All you know is that you love the way they look and you have to have them whenever a new colorway comes out. However, one sneakerhead out there named Gary Warnett was wondering how the Foamposite came to be and got his hands on the original patent for the sneakers to find out exactly what went into building the original pair of Foamposites.

Although there’s not a ton of context here with regards to the way the original Foamposite Ones were actually put together, you can get a general sense of what went into it. As you can see, putting together a Foamposite sneaker required a pretty lengthy process (at least in comparison to other sneakers) and called for a bunch of different steps. As a result, Foamposites were—and still are—very expensive to manufacture compared to other kinds of kicks. But, judging by these patent pictures, there’s a very good reason for that. You get what you pay for. And, with the Foamposite, you’re getting a really solid, sturdy, well-designed sneaker.

At any rate, it’s cool to see exactly how much time, work, and effort went into the original Foamposites. Who would have thought all the way back then that we’d still be talking about these sneakers today? More importantly, with this type of process, we’re pretty sure that Nike never expected these things to still be around today. And yet, the process that it takes to put together a pair of Foamposites turned out to be the very thing that’s helped the sneakers stick around so long.

Check out what goes into making a Foamposite sneaker below:

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