Inside a full Air Max 95 restoration, start to finish.

The Air Max 95 is one of the great restoration candidates: a 30-year-old silhouette, layered panels, gradient uppers, and visible air units that yellow with age. This is the story of one pair, a 2003 neon colorway that arrived at our Miami bench in a shoebox held together with tape, and what a full restoration actually involves.

Step one: assessment and photographs

Every restoration starts with an honest inventory. This pair had yellowed midsoles, a right-side sole separation, crushed heel foam, deep grime in the mesh gradient, and paint loss along the mudguard. We photograph everything and agree the scope with the owner before touching the shoe, the same condition-report process every mail-in order gets.

Deep clean before any repair

You cannot glue or paint a dirty shoe. Panels were cleaned by hand with material-specific solutions: gentle agitation for the mesh, low-moisture work for the suede-like mudguard, and interior extraction for two decades of wear. Laces out, insoles out, everything separately.

Un-yellowing the air units

Sole yellowing is oxidation, and it does not wash off. Our reversal process uses a specialized UV-activated treatment applied over several sessions, pulling the air units and midsole back toward their original ice and white. It is the single most dramatic before and after in sneaker care.

Reglue, rebuild, repaint

The separated sole was cleaned of old adhesive, reglued with heat-activated cement, and pressed. Heel structure was rebuilt, then the neon gradient's paint loss was color-matched and touched in by hand with flexible sneaker paints, sealed with a matte finisher.

Total bench time: eleven days. The owner had worn the pair to his first concert; replacing them was never the point. If you have a pair like that, start with a free quote, read about restoration pricing, or ship them in from any US city.