Air Jordan
XI (11)
Head Designer: Tinker Hatfield
Jordan was back for real and he led the
Bulls to yet another NBA victory. He also
became the second man to ever win Most
Valuable Player awards for the regular
season, All-Star Game and NBA Finals in
the same season. He averaged 30.4 points
per game and scored 40 or more points
in nine games. What a come back!
Triple come back
If Jordan was back, so was Tinker Hatfield.
A terrific design with a new patent leather
and the return of the clear rubber sole
made the Air Jordan XI the most appreciated
Air Jordan model ever released.
But when the design stunned everyone,
the durability and quality was disappointing.
Again the clear rubber soles easily yellowed
and the patent leather also tended to
crack up and/or easily get scratched.
Top design - lacking quality
With the XI's we also saw the return of
low-tops. Something that would follow
the Air Jordan's all the way to the XVI's
(though skipping the XII's).
Back to the banning days
Michael was fined $5000 per game during
the semifinals in 1995 for wearing the
white/black-dk concord ones. He wore them
twice and this was looked upon as uniform
violation as the rest of the Bulls wore
entirely black shoes. (This kind of brings
back memories from when the I's were banned
from the NBA.)
Being fined two games was enough though
and the next game he wore Anfernee Hardaway's
shoes.
But did Nike enjoy MJ not wearing AJ's?
Probably not as he got the "Space
Jam's" for the remaining games. The
same shoes that could also be seen in
the movie Space Jam
Retro fever
When the XI's were retroed in 2000-2001
they would prove to become the retro that
sold in the highest quantity ever and
also the fastest selling Air Jordan's
of all time. |
