The modern debate of whether entertainers or athletes are more important to selling sneakers would have been laughed off as recently as a few years ago. Athletes have long owned the marketing campaign dollars that brands have spent when it comes to selling sneakers because obviously you can’t play basketball very efficiently in a pair of hard bottoms (although if Gilbert Arenas was in the league still, he may try to prove us wrong). But whether or not you think Yeezy jumped over the Jumpman, the importance and everlasting cool factor of the Nike Air Jordan 1 is indisputable thanks to what Michael Jordan did on the court while wearing them.
Image via Nike
MJ didn’t start his rookie year in the Air Jordan 1. He actually played his first 10 games in the Nike Air Ship before debuting what is now known as the Chicago colorway of the Nike Air Jordan 1 against Dr. J and the Philadelphia 76ers on November 17, 1985. Back then there wasn’t a thought of making it a grand-scaled event like modern day sneaker releases have become. In fact, it’s probably just lucky coincidence that they were ready for MJ to even debut them at a home game in Chicago. Regardless, it kicked off arguably the most important sneaker in history and the Air Jordan 1 colorways have been almost non-stop since the first retro models in the mid-90s.
YouTube clips alone can’t truly explain MJ’s level of greatness back then (though his rookie year highlights above are a small glimpse). Even his rookie year stat line of 28.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 2.4 steals, doesn’t fully explain his impact that first year in the NBA. He made the greatest players in the game look like they were moving in some sort of archaic form of slow motion. Jordan was the best show in town wherever the Bulls played and he put new fans in the seats of NBA arenas.
That show included unbelievable dunks and gravity-defying “and ones” on a nightly basis, which helped solidify Michael Jordan’s greatness on the court. But for those of us into this sneaker thing, MJ’s rookie year Air Jordans helped us satisfy the urge to “be like Mike” and simultaneously created a seemingly insatiable desire for more sneakers. And that “us” includes most of your favorite celebrities.
Although now, every celeb wants to be seen rocking sneakers, that wasn’t always the case. DJ AM was one of the most notable celebrity sneakerheads to take their passion for kicks and subsequent e-fame from the NikeTalk forums to the mainstream. AM undeadstocked a pair of Air Jordan 1s to the GRAMMY Awards back in 2007 and set the newly started sneaker blogs on fire. Wale is another NT’er turned celebrity that’s become equally as famous for his sneakers and a documented fan of the Jordan 1. Wale’s sneaker credibility and collection is so next level that we had to get him involved in StockX.
So did Yeezy jump over the Jumpman?
Maybe in some regards, because social media drives the continual conversation about sneakers now and MJ is noticeable absent from any type of personal social media. But they say that “today is yesterday’s pupil.” There couldn’t be a conversation about Yeezys without Jordans carving the path. And in about 4 months, the Bred Air Jordan 1 Retro for 2016 will release and once again remind us who started this worldwide sneaker obsession.
