The Air Jordan 3 is one of my personal favorite retros because of how simple it looks. The Air Jordan 3 was the shoe that saved Jordan from leaving Nike. The jordan 3 was the first shoe to use the Jumpman logo on the shoe and have Nike Air on the back. This shoe changed the style of shoes again by adding a visible air bubble, tumbled leather, and the elephant print that Jordan loved. The three's are one of Jordan's personal favorites also. He wore these shoes in many basketball events including the 1988 NBA Slam Dunk Competition. The Air Jordan had the best advertising that any shoe company had seen. They enlisted Spike Lee to portray Mars Blackmon ( a character Spike played in his movies) as Mike and Mars. The commercials are still very popular to this day and launched Jordan Brand to new heights.
The Jordan Brand Retro 3 ad with Mars Blackmon (photo courtesty of http://www.air-jordan-release-dates.com/Mars-Blackmon-Air-Jordan-Videos.html)
Spike Lee helped Jordan brand wonders with pushing advertising. He went on to help create and star into many ads for almost all of Jordan's shoes after the three's released. Some complain the ad's were annoying or that Spike Lee had no relatable content with Jordan but, having a major celebrity campaign for a shoe was a big thing and hadn't been done for. The reception for the Jordan 3 was pretty small but not bad for a shoe release at the time. The ad's were very creative and sometimes funny. But, they never failed to mention something Jordan could do that a "average" person couldn't do and always asked the question "Is is the shoes?" creating a hype around the shoe saying a normal person could play like Michael if they purchased the shoes.
The first commercial starring Mars Blackmon and Air Jordan himself.
Before the 1985 season when Nike released Michael Jordan's first shoe basketball shoes were all white. Nike and Michael changed this forever. The first Jordan shoe to release was obviously the Jordan 1. The Jordan one changed basketball shoes forever with its bold red and black color ways that people weren't used to seeing. David Stern (the commissioner) outlawed these shoes from the game, but that didn't stop Michael from wearing them and every time he stepped on the court in the shoes he was fined $5,000. Jordan shoes became a phenomenon.The Jordan one is the only shoe to have a Nike swoosh on the shoe.Today these are one of the most sought after retro out of all shoes reselling at very high prices. The banned color way is the most popular of the colors.
Nike then used these bans as a promotional factor in ads across the world. Later in the 85-86 season Nike created a more NBA friendly red, white and black color way.
The Air Jordan 2
Nike created the Air Jordan II in the 86-87 season. These shoes were the last Jordan shoe to be designed by Peter Moore. This shoe was considered the most technical shoe in basketball when it first released. It got rid of the Nike Swoosh logo and created the Jordan wings logo to the shoe with the Nike Air logo on the back heel of the shoe. There was no controversy around this shoe release or usage on court in the NBA.
In the Retro releases before 2004 the Jordan 2 sold very poorly and could be found at very cheap prices all over the place (Nice Kicks). As time has went by the Jordan 2 is now a very sought after retro.
My collection started in 2011 at the end of my senior year in high school with the Jordan Retro 5 Wolf Grey color way, and since then I have been looking at shoes and purchasing them on a regular basis. I have thirteen pairs or Jordan shoes and the rest are Nikes or Adidas, and I don't plan on stopping my collection anytime soon.
My favorite pair I own is my "Concord" retro 11's. They are my favorite pair because it was my first pair of Jordans as a little kid and my family kept the old ones for me to have so I had to get a pair when the re-released. I waited in line for eight hours for them in the freezing cold and it was well worth it.
I have three pairs of retro 4's. The fire reds, the military blues, and the white cement 4's. Out of all the color ways the cement 4's are my favorite that I own. The reason they are is because the shoe is basically all white and are almost blinding when light hits the, and also because they match with anything because the are the basic white and grey.
I own two pairs of retro 7's. I own the Olympic color way and the Raptors color way. My favorite pair out of the two are the raptors. I really like the all black suede featured on them and the hit of red and purple on the bottoms.
I have two pairs of 6's. The Laker colorway and the Olympics color way. My personal favorite is the laker color way because of the all black suede on there. Also, they have really cool threading throughout the shoe. The thread changes colors from yellow, white, and purple (LA Lakers colors). The shoe is also really cool because it wasnt a OG color way.
The stealth 10's are in my top 3 maybe even second in my collection. The tens are one of my favorite retro's and the stealth color way is one of my favorites because You guessed it, all black suede. Suede is really easy to clean and keep clean and doesn't show creases as much as the leather does.
The playoff 12's are the other shoe in the top 3 of my collection with the 10's. I love the 12s as a shoe and the playoffs are my favorite color way because they are simply white and black leather with a little hit of red on the tongue, and heel. The black cement 3's I own are a classic Jordan model and I love wearing them almost every day.
The Air Jordan 7 "Raptor" 9 (black/true red-dark charcoal-club purple) color way hit shelves again September 1, 2012 for the first time since 2002. The Raptor colorway also was released in the 2009 DMP 60+ quick strike pack but with a slightly modified color way. The MSRP of the shoe is 160.00 plus tax.
The Air Jordan sevens first released in 1992 in a Chicago Bulls traditional red/white/black color way. Jordan wore the sevens for the 1991-1992 season on his way to helping the Bulls repeat as World Champions.
Photo Courtesy of www.nicekicks.com
The Raptor color way was worn multiple times throughout the season. In fact, some of Jordan's bigger games in the season he was wearing the Raptor color way, including a 56 point game against the Miami Heat. The nickname "Raptors" wasn't around when Jordan first wore the shoes because the Toronto Raptors didn't exist during the time. The color way got the nickname during the 2002 release because of the colorings of the midsole are a purple and red like the old-school Toronto Raptors team colors.
