HISTORY

Nike’s creative director, Peter C. Moore, was tasked with designing Jordan’s first shoe. The rookie gave Moore a little direction (that the shoe needed to be “different” and “exciting,” plus the aforementioned desire to be lower to the ground), and initially hated what Moore created saying, “I’m not wearing that shoe. I’ll look like a clown.” But the shoe design that we’ve come to know grew on him and it was time to release it to the masses. The Jordan 1 launched in 1985 at the tail end of Jordan’s rookie year, and since it wasn’t going to be ready until November, Jordan played in a different sneaker: Nike’s Air Ship. They chose the Air Ship because it shares a lot of similar design elements to the Jordan 1 and they wanted to fool the world. On the TV screens and film cameras in 1985 it was hard to distinguish an Air Ship from what would become the Air Jordan, and Nike wanted to sell those Jordans, so they let the deception endure. It was that little visual trick that lead to one of the greatest sneaker legends of all time. The first Jordan 1 that sneaker fans think of when they think of the Air Jordan 1 is the “Banned” colorway, also known as the “Bred” or Black and Red. They’re called the “Banned” because the story goes that Jordan was fined $5000 per game that he wore them since they broke league uniform rules. It’s true that Jordan wore Black and Red sn