Designed by Peter Moore and released on 28 June 2014 as part of the Air Jordan 1 line. This release has a leather upper in Gym Red/Sail. Gym Red on a Retro High OG is the Air Jordan 1 speaking its first language. Red, black and white function as brand colours in themselves, inherited from a Chicago rookie Nike signed on 26 October 1984 on a six year, 2.5 million dollar deal worth roughly three times any other contract in the league, unusually including a royalty on sales. Peter Moore drew the shoe with Bruce Kilgore, it reached the public on 1 April 1985, and the first 50,000 pairs sold out on the way past 150 million dollars. A red and white High OG is the version of the silhouette that needs no story told about it, because it is the story.
Two ways to wear it. First, the classic: raw or mid blue straight denim stacked lightly on the collar, a white tee, and nothing else red anywhere on you. Second, tonal red: black trousers with a red beanie or a red knit, letting the colour repeat exactly once above the waist so it looks planned. High tops need a hem decision, so either break the trouser cleanly on the collar or crop above it. Keep red leather away from long rain, wipe it dry immediately if caught out, brush the midsole rather than bleaching it, and store with paper in the toe out of sunlight.
This palette is the one the Banned campaign was built on. The NBA's uniform policy required shoes to be at least 51 percent white and carried a 5,000 dollar per game fine, and the shoe the league actually cited was the Nike Air Ship prototype Jordan wore before the Air Jordan I released. Nike paid rather than redesigned and built advertising out of the fine, which taught the sneaker market that transgression sells. Around it, Spike Lee directed and played Mars Blackmon in the earliest campaigns, and 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Ice Cube and Jay-Z put Jordan into music. Red and white carries all of that on sight.
OG spec means the original panel layout: leather across the toe, quarter and heel, a stitched Swoosh through the midfoot, a padded high collar, a foam midsole and a flat rubber outsole. Air cushioning entered the line only from the Air Jordan II, so this is firm and court flat, and that is the correct feel for the shape. Red leather is the most demanding colour in the line to keep looking right, because it fades unevenly in sun and shows every white scuff mark from a kerb. Condition it once a season, keep it out of prolonged daylight in storage, and accept that the toe box will crease, because it always does.
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