Songfacts®:

• Run-D.M.C. showed that you could make an entire song about sneakers on their 1986 track "My Adidas." Nelly is a Nike guy, so he did a song about their Air Force Ones, his footwear of choice. The song and video are essentially ads for the sneakers, with Nelly and his crew singing (and rapping) their praises.
• Three members of Nelly's group St. Lunatics feature on this track: Kyjuan, Ali and Murphy Lee. Both Nelly as a solo artist and St. Lunatics as a group were signed to Universal Music, which made Nelly their priority.
• "Air Force Ones" was the third single from Nelly's second album, Nellyville, following "Hot In Herre" and "Dilemma," both #1 hits. "Air Force Ones" flew all the way to #3 and helped sell a lot of shoes.
• Nike Air Force Ones were the first basketball shoes to use the Nike Air technology. First produced in 1982, they pre-date the Air Jordan, released in 1985.
  
  Nike stopped making Air Force Ones in 1984 but reintroduced them in 1986 as sneakerhead culture emerged. Jordans were always more popular, with the Air Force Ones considered a throwback, but when Nelly's song came out it make them much more popular, not so much for playing basketball, but as streetwear.
• In a 2022 interview with HipHopDX, Nelly said that Nike did send some cash and plenty of product his way, but the company got a much bigger benefit from the song.
  
  "When we first started rockin' Air Force Ones, they were $59.99," he said. "We did the song, eight months later they were $100."
• The St. Louis production duo The Trackboyz came up with the beat. They landed another big hit when they produced J-Kwon's 2004 cut "Tipsy."
• Nelly recalled to XXL magazine how joking around with his partners spawned a hit tune: "We had got the beat from some producers back home and we had heard it - we were playing it in the dressing room as we were getting ready for the show. We had just talked about leaving the mall and my sister who used to do my styling at the time was getting things for the show - mighta been some fresh new Air Forces - and Murph [Murphy Lee] was like, 'Man you shoulda got me like two peerrr or somethin''... we just started playing with that and integrating that into the hook. It's funny with us, we're family first so I guess when you get around family they tend to bring out certain things in you. I don't wanna say you act more goofy or whatever, but you more relaxed around your family so things like that come out."