The Air Jordan 4

  Air Jordan 4 was another Tinker Hatfield masterpiece. Instead of looking for inspiration for the shoe, Tinker looked towards the performance aspect in the Air Jordan line. The Air Jordan 4 is one of my personal favorite retro's because of how clean it looks.


The 4's were released in 1989 which was Michaels first year of being a married man, and also a father. (sneakerfiles.com) They released in four original color ways that were, the white cements, black cements, military blues, and the fire reds. (I personally own 3 out of 4 of them!). When first released they didn't have a warm welcome. Many people felt they were ugly, but the shoe grew on people. In recent years, Nike and Jordan brand have collaborated with UNDFTD and Eminem to create special edition colors of the 4s, and also have released many other color ways that were highly sought after including the Thunder/Lightning pack, columbias, and the pure moneys to name a few.

The Air Jordan brand took a new route in advertising this shoe. They kept the Spike Lee 'Mars Blackmon' commercials and used them heavily. The commercial only featured Mike for three dunk scenes and the rest featured Mars above the rim with shoes talking about how "every homeboy has them" and talks quickly about them. Its hard to follow but you can't help but watch and get the words you do understand stuck in your head.

The special advertising spot the four's got was a new turn in advertising for basketball shoes and shoes in general. The shoes got a advertising first in Spike Lee's film "Do the Right Thing". The scene is a sneakerhead classic and almost all Jordan collectors know exactly what scene it is but what shoes they are. The shoes featured in the film are the White Cement color way with wild laces in it. What happens in the scene is any sneaker collectors worst nightmare, the dreaded SCUFF! And its no normal scuff, its a huge black scuff on ALL WHITE SNEAKERS! You can't recover from that. See for yourself in the scene below. (Warning Explicit language)