SNEAKERHEADS: Red & White Air Jordan XXXI a tribute to originals 'Banned' legend

[playahaitian]

Red and white Air Jordan XXXI a tribute to originals, 'Banned' legend

The Jordan brand unveiled the Air Jordan XXXI in Las Vegas on Wednesday night, with the lead colorway giving a nod to the buzz that initially kick-started the signature line.

The red and black colorway of the shoe is a tribute to the Air Jordan I, which debuted in 1985. It features elements of that shoe, including a leather upper, and is the first time the shoe has an Air Jordan logo and a swoosh since the original.

The Jordan XXXI will be available on Sept. 3 for $185.

On the bottom of the shoe is the word "BANNED," a reference to the legend that gave the brand a defiant beginning.

On Feb. 25, 1985, then-NBA deputy commissioner Russ Granik sent a letter to Nike's marketing chief Rob Strasser stressing that the red and black shoes violated the league's uniform code.

"In accordance with our conversations, this will confirm and verify that the National Basketball Association's rules and procedures prohibited the wearing of certain red and black NIKE basketball shoes by Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan on or around October 18, 1984," the letter said.

Rumor had circulated that Jordan would be fined $5,000 per game for wearing the red and black shoes, but there was no evidence that Nike ever paid a fine. The shoes Jordan was wearing for that preseason game in 1984 were not even Air Jordans; they were a shoe called the Air Ship.

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But Nike famously told its consumers that the shoe was banned in a television commercial, which featured Jordan dressed in red and black.

"On Sept. 15, Nike created a revolutionary basketball shoe," the voiceover said. "On Oct. 18, the NBA threw them out of the game. Fortunately, the NBA can't stop you from wearing them. Air Jordans by Nike."

The Air Jordan I came out in March 1985, at the then-exorbitant price of $65. Over the next nine months, Nike sold $100 million worth.

The 31st iteration of the shoe will be worn, as has been tradition, by Jordan brand spokesman Russell Westbrook. Only the initial colorway will have the words "BANNED" on the bottom.

In June, Nike said the sale of Jordan brand products equaled $2.7 billion, up 16 percent from the previous year. Jordan himself gets an undisclosed royalty from sales of the signature line.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/17116192/air-jordan-xxxi-unveiled-las-vegas

 

[playahaitian]

http://www.esquire.com/style/news/a46865
/jordan-31-reveal/

The Long, Hard Road to the New Air Jordan XXXI
The newest flagship sneaker takes cues from the past while pushing towards the future.

Whenever the team at Jordan Brand begins working on a new game shoe, they start with Michael Jordan himself. That's because the games shoes are the spine of the company—reaching all the way back to the Jordan 1 and informing everything else under the Jordan umbrella. They are the front guard: displaying the best technological and design advancements while setting a tone for the brand's overarching philosophy.


It all started with Michael Jordan's basketball career, sure. But now Jordan Brand is a force in and of itself, setting forth a point of view that has been honed over the course of 30 years at the forefront of sneaker culture.

Michael Jordan in the original 'banned' Air Jordan 1.
Jordan Brand


For the Jordan 31, the conversation started when Michael called the sneaker design team to his annual summer basketball camp in Santa Barbara. He gave them an edict: Go back and look at the three decades of product that Jordan Brand had created. Then build off that history to create something fresh.

Tate Keubris, the lead designer for the 31 (and the 18 and 19), said, "Well, let's start at the very beginning." So that's what they did. They looked back to that first crucial sneaker: the Air Jordan 1.

The One was created 31 years ago through a series of events that now seem like they were destined to occur (even though theyalmost didn't spell success at the time). Since that release in 1985, the style has become one of the most iconic sneakers in history—or the unrivaled champion, depending on whom you ask.

It's been worn through the NBA finals, onthe runway, and even gifted to President Obama.

"The One was where it all began for Michael and Jordan Brand; the One kind of created sneaker culture, basically," Keubris explains. So that's where the team started—but they knew they would have to go a whole lot further than just rehashing a classic.

"Michael got us in at a good starting point, but I think we never wanted to get stuck just redefining the One," says Keubris. "I didn't want people to see this and be like, 'Oh, they just designed a modern One.' We wanted to take some of those cues, and add more performance, and a few stories from there. We want this to stand on its own as a new modern icon for Jordan."

Jordan Brand


One of the main reasons that Michael Jordan didn't initially want to work with Nike back in the '80s was because he thought Nike's soles were too thick. He couldn't feel the court below him when he was wearing the brand's shoes, and he needed that for his game. So when Peter Moore designed the first Air Jordan he listened, giving Jordan the thin rubber sole he was asking for.

It was impressive technology back then, but in the intervening years Nike has grown. There's more tech, and it's better.

"Honestly I don't know how Michael played and dunked [in the Air Jordan 1]," Keubris says about that 31-year-old solid rubber sole. "God, that's crazy."

For the 31, the Jordan Brand designers maintained the basic silhouette, but were able to fill that shape with whatever technology they wanted. They were limited only by their imaginations.

Jordan Brand


From start to finish the whole process took 18 months. Step one? Some paper and pencils. "We spend a couple months just sketching, going through thousands, thousands of little scribbles and sketches, until we find something that we feel good about and we'll show marketing, we'll show Michael, and then start mocking things up."

From there, it's time to explore tooling and shapes, materials and hardware, colors and graphics. The Flyweave upper had to be meticulously designed in Italy with the help of complex machinery. They had to find the right vegan leather that was thin enough for a game shoe but still had a buttery feel.

Jordan Brand


They sent all their digital files and tangible pieces under a codename to discourage leaks ("Raptor" after one of the fastest birds in the world). They had to get the fading Swoosh design past the legal department and CEO Mark Parker's personal hesitance. And by the end of that process, they had created something they hoped would land near Michael's original vision.

"When you go to present to him you're a little bit nervous at first, especially when you're showing him rough mock-ups or sketches," Keubris explains. "But when I pulled out the first mock-up on this one you could tell he could see it and he kind of had this smile. It was a relief. And then we drank some tequila—I forget the brand but it's like a thousand something dollars. It's really good. You kind of have to drink to get through this process."

The main question now is if people will wear the 31 in ways that game shoes haven't been worn as of late. Howard "H" White has been with Jordan since the very beginning, and now acts at the VP of the brand. He sees all the history this shoe holds—and the future it represents.

"It's enough of the old mingled with the new to push forward," says H. "How amazing [to look back now at] what MJ has stood for for thirty years? I mean, how amazing?"

 

[J.E.T.S]

What are thooooossseee

 

[IT IS WHAT IT IS]

Copping on nostaligia principle. I havent brought a pair since the 13s but I think Im grabbing these...

 

[xxironxx]

Naw

 

[drowzie]

I've NEVER owned a pair of Jordans, but I think I'm gonna cop these, they FRESH!!!!! I love the design.

 

[woodchuck]

After I found a pair of De La Soul dunks for $35, I promised myself I was done with buying sneaks. I may have to break that promise, but $185 ain't too cool to me.

 

[MrBee]

Meh...I'm torn...gotta see em in real life...