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The Shoe Banned by the NBA

Basketball as we all know it nowadays has become something like a multimillion enterprise. The game has changed dramatically since the 70’s and the 80’s even when the NBA was viewed as just a sport and people still hadn’t come up with ideas on how to exploit the great business opportunities that were born through the game itself. 1985 though was the year when a pair of shoes that would still be considered a classic 25 years later, created one of the biggest controversies in the NBA history. Michael Jordan’s Air Jordan 1 model was the first shoe in the league’s history that bore a multiple colorway, a breakthrough at a time when basketball athletes’ shoes were strictly white according to the already existing uniform regulations. When Jordan first saw them he absolutely refused to wear them saying that they will make him look like a clown in the court. Eventually after changing his mind he decided to try them on and that’s when the whole thing began. The NBA commissioner in a true example of 80’s “closemindedness” issued a ban against the Air Jordans forcing MJ to pay a 5,000 dollar fine every time he wore them on a Bulls game. That’s when Nike took a huge risk by grabbing the opportunity and suggesting that Jordan should still wear the shoes and they would take care of the fines he collected. Openly risking a multi-billion dollars franchise, instead of backfiring at them, the idea proved to be a great success for the company as “The shoe banned by the NBA” and its trademark “X” symbol created an enormous following of people who bought the shoe just because of the controversy that it created. Nike has released 23 different color variations up to this day with two sets of laces matching the color combo

LRG lookbook 2012 w/ The Cool Kids

Odd Future in London