On June 19th 1984, The Chicago Bulls selected a 6’6 guard from North Carolina named Michael Jeffrey Jordan, who everyone and their uncle knew was going to be a success in the league, but did not realise how great he’d be or the powerful influence he would have outside of basketball, more specifically in the sneaker culture.
With thirty-three Jordan releases, it can be a question to which is the best or what can be held as the best.
In this edition of CrepTalk we will list the top 5 best Jordan’s of all time.
This list is based on its influential strength and the iconic moments within Michael Jordan’s career, more specifically with the Chicago Bulls
5. Jordan 12
Originally released in 1996 on the tail-end of Michael Jordan’s career, this shoe had the difficult task of following up from the previous release of the Jordan 11, which by no means was an easy task for Jordan Brand designer at the time Tinker Hatfield.
By toning the down, the patent leather used in the Jordan 11 and replacing it with a pebbled leather pattern, furthermore, this specific Jordan has the reputation as being one of if not the most durable Jordan out of the original fourteen releases to use on court till this day, additionally the traction is still great.
However, this shoe’s influence wouldn’t be as great if it wasn’t for the historic flu game in 1998 against the Utah Jazz scoring 38 points along with the win.
4. Jordan 4
In 1989 fans all over the world were starting to become aware of Michael Jordan and his tremendous ability, putting up crazy numbers that can be seen overseas, with such worldwide popularity the Jordan 4 was the first ever Jordan sneaker to be released worldwide. Furthermore, it was the release of Spike Lee’s blockbuster film ‘Do the Right Thing’ that poured more noticeability on the shoe by giving a brief scene which some older folks may recognise. With such popularity and marketing this made Jordan more accessible to ‘regular’ people who could not necessarily do the superhuman dunks like Mike, but they can still be like Mike by buying his shoes
3. Jordan 11
Michael’s peak was certainly in the 90’s along with his sneaker line, as there were multiple iconic releases such as the Jordan 7’s during the ’92 Olympics. However, without a doubt the most popular release of the 90’s was the Jordan 11 Concord, with its elite use of materials such as the luxurious patent leather and fabric upper made it arguably the best Jordan in the line, till this day this specific colourway sells out faster than most other Jordan’s outside of the 1’s, a good example would be re-release of 2011 retro concords which saw mayhem across America.
It is also important to note that the Jordan 11’s saw its first use in ’95 when Jordan had returned to the NBA after a brief retirement, following his father’s tragic death, in which he went on to win his fourth ring on Father’s Day.
2. Jordan 1
The 1 that started it all, well not necessarily it was the Nike Airship in the 1984 which was worn by Jordan during the 1’s development phases.
However, due to its infamous colourway, the ‘bred’ which broke NBA colour scheme rules.
Originally, Jordan did not want to sign with Nike, he actually did not like the brand due to the technology Nike used in their shoes, Jordan actually wanted to sign with Adidas.
Knowing this, Nike tried everything with Jordan in order to win him over and came out with one of the greatest sneakers of all time, the Air Jordan 1, with its infamous banned colourway, the bred, though it wasn’t necessarily the Jordan 1 itself that caused Jordan to be fined each game he wore such colours, it still formed one of the greatest marketing campaigns of all time.
1. Jordan 3
Even though the 1’s started the brand, it was the 3’s that made Jordan brand, in 1988 Michael Jordan was considering leaving Nike after the much-disliked Jordan 2, and finding out that the original designers of the Jordan 1 were leaving, with Nike facing great pressure to not lose Jordan, they scrambled to get their best designers on the job. That best designer at the time happened to be Tinker Hatfield. The Jordan 3 caught the eye of Jordan with its distinctive elephant print and tumbled leather to suit Jordan’s fast paced style, furthermore, it was the first ever Jordan to have an exposed air bubble unit, further cementing its revolutionary design. Jordan wore these in his monumental free throw line dunk in the slam dunk contest in 1988.
That's the list my people, it took quite some time to consider each entry as each Jordan has such unique history such as the Jordan 5 which was inspired by the P-51 Mustang fighter jet an American fighter jet used in WW2, which was a personification of Jordan's conviction of greatness and dominance.
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