The Jordan Eleven's

The Air Jordan 11. Where to begin? The Elevens are many sneaker collectors favorite shoe model ever.   This shoe is a classic. Tinker decided to take a different route to making the best sneaker he could. He began to experiment with new materials that hadn't been used before and he ended up using a nylon material and patent leather in the design. This made the shoe noticeably lighter and gave the foot more lock down during a game.

Tinker was always looking for motivation for the design of the shoes he created. This particular model was designed after a sports car. He gave the shoe the shiny patent leather to go along with this inspiration. He also used high quality materials like a clear outsole, and carbon plate insertion.

The Original color ways that released of the Jordan 11 were the concords, columbia's, and the playoff's.
Other color ways include the cool grey's and the space jams. The space jam's were made for Michael to wear in the movie Space Jam. Every color way is very popular and many wait every year to see which one will release next.

The Jordan Ten's

During the creation of the shoe Michael was still out of the game. And the Nike Jordan line seemed to be a wrap. Tinker had other plans. Tinker created a shoe that would symbolize Michael Jordan and give him on last hurrah, since they thought Mike was done for good. The tens are the only shoe Michael didn't give his authority to release and create.
Tinker and Nike wanted to make a shoe that congratulated Michael on his awesome career and all of his accomplishments. On the sole of the shoe they printed Jordan's accomplishments in the league in this order:  When Mike returned he wore the shoes upon coming out of retirement. 

1. 85-Rookie of the Year
2. 86- 63 Points
3. 87- Scoring Title
4. 88- Dunk Champ
5. 89- All Defense
6. 90- 63 Points
7. 91- MVP/ Championship
8. 92- MVP/ Championship
9. 93- MVP/ Championship
10. 94 And Beyond

Upon release the brand released a shoe with a strap on the toe, a clean cut toe (Jordan's favorite) and a city pack. The OG colors of the shoe are the Chicago's, New York, Sacramento, Orlando, and Seattle donning the respecting city's NBA teams colors. Also released outside of the city pack were the steels, and shadow color way. 

Jordan's Alter Ego Pack (2012)

When Jordan shocked the world with his first retirement many wondered how he could leave the game he loved for baseball. And Nike, and Jordan brand used this to their advantage for advertising. They created a alter ego  "Johnny Kilroy". They created commercials starring Steve Martin and other NBAstars to go along with his alter ego. Along with Kilroy they created other alter egos for him.

The Kilroy Pack
Courtesy of KicksOnFire.com

In 2012 the brand announced they were going to release a line of Jordan 9's that go along with his alter ego's team colors. They released six shoes for the six egos he had including the Kilroys, Slim Jenkins, Motorboat Jones, and Calvin Baileys.

The Air Jordan 9

The Air Jordan 9 was released during Michael Jordan's first retirement from basketball. Mike never played a full season in these shoes. During the designing of these shoes Mike was in Asia promoting for Nike and Tinker used this to his advantage as he was very influenced by Japanese culture. Tinker gave a Japanese reference hidden all throughout the shoe but the heel logo is a 'rising sun' Jordan Logo.  This shoe was designed to show the Jordan and his brand was a global thing and Tinker is quoted to say "everyone in the world wanted to be like Mike". On the sole of the shoe they put words in different languages that described Jordan's significance to the game and sports world wide.

 The Words are as listed:

Left Shoe
Uhuru (Swahili) – “Independence”
Cвобода (Russian) – “Freedom”
Cпорт (Russian) – “Sport”
Athletisch (German) – “Athletic”
Muundaji (Swahili) – “Hope”

Right Shoe
Intenso (Italian) – “Intense”
Liberté (French) – “Freedom”
Anmutig (German) – “Graceful”
Fuerza (Spanish) – “Force”
Dédié (French) – “Dedicated” (sneakerfiles.com)

The Air Jordan 9 Black/Charcoal
Courtesy of Sneakerfiles.com

This shoe released in October of 1993 in four color ways including the olives, powder blues, white/red, black/charcoal/red. Some other sought-after color ways are the cool greys, and the chromes. The shoe was also released during Jordan's baseball career so the brand made Jordan personalized baseball cleats to play in. They also released more cleats in 2002-2003. 

The Air Jordan 8

The Air Jordan 8 was released for the 1992-1993 season in which Jordan would go on to win his third consecutive title, seventh scoring title, and would score his 20,000th point in the NBA. This shoe represents a lot of history for not only the Jordan brand but the man himself. Today, the Air Jordan 8 is a very sought after retro and many have been waiting for another release of this shoe.

One of the most notiecable things about the eight's is that there wasn't a Nike sign. Tinker believed that after the Air Jordan 6 the brand had enough strength behind it to go forward without Nike logo's plastered on the shoes but, Nike wasn't having it until the eight's. Tinker designed these shoes like none other before. He added higher ankle support, and straps (bunny ears) into the design for amazing ankle support. The shoe was a lot heavier than the others but performed like a tank and was a great all around shoe. Tinker also added in a display of colors on the mudguard to give the shoe the extra pop that it needed.

The Aqua Colorway--photo courtesy of nicekicks.com

When released the brand released 3 original color way's throughout the season which were the aquas, the bugs bunny, and the playoffs. The Aquas are one of the most sought after Jordan shoes ever and are also rumored to release sometime in the next year. Other color way's of the shoes include the chromes, peapods, and the black toes.


The advertisements used the popularity of the Looney Tunes to their advantage again. They used characters like bugs bunny and marvin the martian and placed them inside the Air Jordan 8. They used the comedy and cartoons to draw kids into wanting the shoe which worked because it is one of the most popular ads in the line.

The Air Jordan 7

The Air Jordan 7. Michaels second championship, MVP and Finals MVP, and the year of the Dream Team. The shoes were released in the 1991-1992 season where Jordan led his Chicago Bulls to the best  record in the league. This shoe was another Tinker Hatfield design (see a trend?) and proved Tinker could find inspiration from anywhere. As Tinker was in Portland he passed a music shop advertising afropop music and it hit home with Tinker. He purchased this poster and used it to build the Air Jordan 7.

The Air Jordan 7 Sock liner with hits of the Afripop designs Tinker threw into the shoe.
(courtesy of soleredemption)

They used the hurache technology and used a inner sock liner for the shoe and got rid of the visible air unit. They were very light weight and form fitting and designed for a comfortable ride on the court. There was also no signs of a Nike logo on the outside of the shoe. The only place you would be able to find a Nike logo was on the box, or the sole of the shoe. Instead of the Nike logo on the back they added a new Jordan "v" logo with his number in the middle.

The shoe was released in 1991 in 5 original color ways. The Hares, Olympics, Raptors, Cardinals, and Bordeauxs (pictured above). The olympic color ways is one of the most sought after shoes in the Jordan line because it was worn by MJ in the 1992 Barcelona olympics with the "Dream Team".

A new thing for advertising the Jordan Brand shoes this year they used Bugs Bunny in a commercial. Its a great commercial and makes you wonder if they got the idea for Space Jam from the making of this commercial. Bugs is wearing the "Hare" color way which, is expected because he is well...a rabbit, and Jordan is wearing the Bordeaux.

The Air Jordan 6

The Air Jordan 6. A lot came along with the Air Jordan six, including new materials, new technology, and most importantly MJ's first NBA championship! The Air Jordan 6 was one of the first shoes Michael gave his direct orders to Tinker on the design of the shoe. One of Michaels requests was also a first for basketball shoe design. He requested a clean toe, meaning that he wanted a solid to with extra reinforcement. Jordan also had trouble getting his previous models on his foot so Tinker added he two holes in the tongue and a loop hole on the back of the shoe which, he called a spoiler (sneakerfiles). They also added a molded heel tab (another first) to the shoe so it didn't rub on his achilles tendon. They added a solid rubber sole to the bottom because of complaints that kids were falling because the sole on the Jordan 5 sole collected dust on the court.


The Air Jordan 6 released in 1991in five original color ways for a retail price of $125. The color ways it released in are white-infrareds, black-infrareds, carmines, and the maroons. Other notable color ways are the Olympic's. the Lakers, and the DMP pack.

The Air Jordan 6 was also one of the shoes jordan released a specific color way in a package deal with another shoe. The sixes were released with a special color way of the retro 11's. The sixes were released in the pack with a all black with gold hits in the midsole.

Michael and Nike took the advertising route of Spike Lee again. Spike finds a genie and wishes to be Mike.