Air Jordan I (1985) - banned, loved, rejected, re-retroed
The Air Jordan I (1) was released in 1985. 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...
Retro hysteria and Nu'Retro
After 2001 Nike/Jordan Brand has gone crazy with releasing retros of all sorts.
2002 saw the Jordan I's being released as a special Platinum version, with Jumpman's on
the sides.
In 2002 a new concept called Nu'Retro was also released. A modern remake of a classic shoe.
I have doubted many times whether or not to put the Nu'Retros on the site, since I have
a difficulty making up my mind wheter they are a "real" Air Jordan or not. At present I chose
to add them - but they might disappear sometime in the future...
Hysteria continues and 1.5
2003 we got patent leather versions of the Jordan I's and in 2004 a low-top retro was made.
In 2004 the Air Jordan 1.5 was also released. Not quite sure why JB chose this name, since it
would sound as if it's a mix between the 1's and 2's. I would say it didn't have much resemblance
with either of them. And if I had problems deciding whether or not to put the Nu'Retro's on the site
it was easier to decide NOT to put the 1.5's on here. In my opinion, they're simply just "another Jordan Brand shoe"
and not an Air Jordan!
I'm quite sure the retro hysteria is not over yet and more Air Jordan 1's will surely see the light
within the near future...
