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.