AIR JORDAN I

Released March 1985
The first Air Jordan shoe is so hot it's banned from the league. Michael flies through the season and earns a trip to the All-Star game and Rookie of the Year Honors. In the 1986 play-offs, Michael drops in an incredible 63 points against Boston.

They're Back! The remake of the original Jordan 1 in patent leather, brought back by popular demand. Leather upper with patent leather overlays. “Wings” logo on lateral side. Solid rubber cupsole with heel Air-Sole® unit. Solid rubber outsole with deep flex grooves and concentric circular traction pattern.

The Air Jordan I (1)
Head Designer: Peter Moore

As you all know this was the start of a beautiful era.

In the 1984 NBA Draft, Michael was selected by the Chicago Bulls with the No. 3 overall pick.
This was after seeing Jordan perform a wonderful three years in North Carolina and co-captain and star of the Olympic basketball team in 1984 which as you all know picked up the gold medal.

Nike understood that this player would turn out to be something else and signed him up to create a line of shoes and appearal.

Banned design - backlash or marketing trick
The Air Jordan I was designed by Peter Moore and marked a new era in basketball shoewear design.
There has been multiple fakes of this shoe and also other shoe brands made models where you could see lots of similarities with Air Jordan I.

The black/red model was banned by the NBA back in 1985 due to NBA color rules and this actually helped to create more publicity and interest for the shoes. Who knows, it might have been a marketing trick from Nike.

A great thing with the original Air Jordan I's were that they came with a double set of laces to match the two different colors the shoe was made up in. For instance the black/red's came with one set of black laces and one set of red laces.

When talking about colors it should also be said that the Air Jordan I's were the Air Jordan's that were released in the most colorways of all AJ's. 23 colorways (samples included) even beats the number of Air Jordan XI retros.

Retro - demands change
The white/black-red and black/red were released as retros in 1994 and sold very poorly. Noone seemed to want them. They went on sale for $20 at some stores in the US

In 2001 they re-retroed them and this time around the demand was a lot greater. At some stores they sold out in just a few minutes. I bet a few of the people buying them was wishing they were around back in '94...

Air Jordan I Rated:


Gary C. From: Chicago, IL :: 12/16/2004
I love the Air Jordan I shoes. They feel so comfortable on the inside, plus look pimp on the out side!

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