When I was in 8th grade, I saw my first pair of Air Jordans in person in PE class. They were red, black, and white, and I had never seen anything like them. Retailing for $75, a pair was well out of reach of most students in my working class school; thus, we all gathered around them like pagans at an ancient shrine. The year was 1985, and there was no such thing as “Jordan 1’s.” No one knew there would be other versions later. Until Michael Jordan’s endorsement deal with Nike, no NBA player had their own shoe line that got updated every season. The “Jordan 1’s,” as they later came to be called, were notorious for being banned by the NBA because one of the shoe’s color schemes was red and black. Up until Michael Jordan, no NBA player had ever worn a shoe that didn’t have the color white on it.
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That year, the Air Jordan IV was released. Designed by famed Nike designer Tinker Hatfield, the Jordan 4’s become a cultural touchstone (Sothebys.com). Film director Spike Lee filmed a series of famous commercials for the Jordan IV’s featuring Jordan and Lee as his famous altar ego, Mars Blackmon. These commercials birthed one of the most famous taglines in advertising history: “It’s gotta be the shoes!” The shoe was also featured in a major comedic moment in Lee’s 1989 film, Do the Right Thing, when a white bicyclist wearing a Larry Bird jersey runs over a young man’s Jordan IV’s and nearly starts a race riot. Since 1989, the Air Jordan 4 has inspired many innovative retros, collabs and special editions. Many sneakerheads believe the Air Jordan 4 has the best design out of the line’s many iterations. I agree with that. By the time they were released, they were selling for over $100, and were so coveted that stories started to surface of young men getting shot while wearing
That year, the Air Jordan IV was released. Designed by famed Nike designer Tinker Hatfield, the Jordan 4’s become a cultural touchstone (Sothebys.com). Film director Spike Lee filmed a series of famous commercials for the Jordan IV’s featuring Jordan and Lee as his famous altar ego, Mars Blackmon. These commercials birthed one of the most famous taglines in advertising history: “It’s gotta be the shoes!” The shoe was also featured in a major comedic moment in Lee’s 1989 film, Do the Right Thing, when a white bicyclist wearing a Larry Bird jersey runs over a young man’s Jordan IV’s and nearly starts a race riot. Since 1989, the Air Jordan 4 has inspired many innovative retros, collabs and special editions. Many sneakerheads believe the Air Jordan 4 has the best design out of the line’s many iterations. I agree with that. By the time they were released, they were selling for over $100, and were so coveted that stories started to surface of young men getting shot while wearing