Nike Air Jordan

Air Jordan is an American brand of basketball shoes, athletic, casual, and style clothing produced by Nike. Founded in Chicago, Air Jordan was created for Hall of Fame former basketball player Michael Jordan during his time with the Chicago Bulls. The original Air Jordan sneakers were produced exclusively for Michael Jordan in late 1984, and released to the public on April 1, 1985. The shoes were designed for Nike by Peter Moore, Tinker Hatfield, and Bruce Kilgore.

Photo from Deepal Tamang

Iconic Shoes

Air Jordan I

The first Air Jordan was produced for Michael Jordan during his time with the Chicago Bulls in 1984 and designed by Peter b. Moore. Along with iconic release of colorways including Air Jordan 1 Royal. Moreover Air Jordan Metallic, Air Jordan Black Toe and more. Whereas all were failed, only the Air Jordan 1 Chicago, which manages to stand above out. Additionally in 1994, Chicago Air Jordan came up with retro rendition, having Nike Air tag on tongue. Meanwhile 2 decade without any change this was considered the best retro. The year 2013, Air Jordan 1 again released with Nike Air branding and lasted for 2 years.

Finally in 2015, there was a true Chicago 1 fashion having Nike Air labeling on tongue and no jumpman silhouette. Once again they are re-imagining Chicago Jordan 1 on 29 October 2022. The red and black colorway of the Nike Air Ship, the prototype for the Jordan I, was later outlawed by then-NBA Commissioner David Stern for having very little white on them. (This rule, known as the "51 percent" rule, was repealed in the late 2000s.)

Photo from Travis Essinger

Air Jordan IV

In 1989, Nike released the Air Jordan IV to the public. Designed by Tinker Hatfield, it was the first Air Jordan released on the global market. It had four colorways: White/Black, Black/Cement Grey, White/Fire Red-Black, and Off White/Military Blue. Nike featured director and actor Spike Lee in ads for the AJ IV. Lee had featured the shoe in his movie Do The Right Thing. The Air Jordan IV re-released in 1999, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010–2013 and 2015–2020 with numerous colorways being released nearly every year. Michael Jordan wore the Air Jordan IV when he made "The Shot," a series winner in Game 5 of the 1989 NBA First Round between the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers. In 2012 a Cavalier colorway dubbed the "Cavs" was released to honor "The Shot."

Air Jordan 4 collaboration shoes are some of the rarest and include, the Air Jordan 4 UNDFTD, Eminem x Air Jordan 4 Carhartt, the Wahlberger 4, and the Travis Scott friends and family Purple.

Photo from Leon Skibitzki

Air Jordan XI

This model was designed by Tinker Hatfield. When the shoe launched, Michael Jordan (retired from basketball by then) was with the Birmingham Barons in baseball's minor baseball leagues. Hatfield designed the sneaker waiting for Jordan to come back and hoping he would play in them. The ballistic mesh upper of the sneaker was meant to make the Air Jordan XI lighter and more durable than past sneakers. Further changes came with the use of a carbon fiber spring plate in the translucent "frosty" outsole, giving the shoe better torque when twisting on the court. The highlight and arguably best-known aspect of the shoe is its patent leather mudguard. Patent leather was lightweight compared to genuine leather and also tended not to stretch as much – a property to help keep the foot within the bounds of the foot bed during directional changes on the court. The patent leather gave the XI a "formal" look. When this shoe released, some wore this model with business suits instead of dress shoes.

The sneakers were only samples in 1995 when Jordan decided to come back to the NBA. Hatfield and Nike discouraged Jordan from playing in them, but once they were produced, he couldn't resist. Also noteworthy, Jordan violated league dress code by wearing the shoes, as his teammates wore all-black shoes. It wasn't the first time Jordan had run afoul of NBA footwear rules, having broken them with his very first signature shoe in 1985. He was fined $5,000 for not following the Bulls' colorway policy with the AJ XI. After the fine, Nike made him a pair of the shoes in a black/white/concord colorway for the series against Orlando; Jordan wore Penny Hardaway's signature black Nike Air Flight shoes for Game 3 while said colorway was under production. A similar black/white/royal blue colorway was released to the public at the end of 2000. The colorway was changed for the public release because the concord purple had looked like royal blue on television.

Jordan wore the Air Jordan XI on the way to helping the Chicago Bulls claim the 1995–96 NBA Championship. He also wore the XI white Columbia colorway in the 1996 NBA All-Star Game and was selected MVP of the game. The shoes received more media exposure when Jordan wore the Air Jordan XI model in the 1996 animated movie Space Jam. These shoes were eventually released in 2000 and re-released in 2009 with the nickname "Space Jams." The concord purple was changed to royal blue for the released versions of the shoe.

The Air Jordan XI was originally released from 1995 to 1996. It was retro'd in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2006–2018 and 2019. The Air Jordan XI is one of the most popular Air Jordan in the series and has released almost ritualistically every December since 2008, selling out in minutes. It also is Hatfield's favorite. With the Air Jordan XI being one of the most popular Jordan, supply is very limited and would cause fans to line up outside of stores before releases.

Photo from Ryan Plomp

Looney Tunes and Space Jam

On January 26, 1992, Jordan Brand debuted a commercial during Super Bowl XXVI which showed Bugs Bunny enlisting the help of Michael Jordan to outsmart a bullying rival team using cartoon gags. A second ad premiered in 1993 featuring Bugs and Jordan facing off against Marvin the Martian. The ads inspired Jordan's agent, David Falk, to pitch a film starring Jordan and the Looney Tunes characters. The pitch resulted in Space Jam, a commercial success which grossed over $230 million at the box office and generated over $1 billion in merchandise sales.

The success of the advertising campaign and the film contributed to the popularity of Looney Tunes and other cartoon characters as motifs in street fashion through the 1990s and 2000s, spawned limited editions of Air Jordan sneakers in colorways paying homage to such characters as Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian, and Lola Bunny, popularized the Air Jordan XI as worn by Jordan in the film, and led to the development of a 2021 sequel titled Space Jam: A New Legacy starring LeBron James.