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- Cut
- High Top
- Upper
- Leather
- Colourway
- Varsity Red
Air Jordan 1 High Varsity Red
Air Jordan 1 High Varsity Red
- Cut
- High Top
- Upper
- Leather
- Colourway
- Varsity Red
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Culture Note™
Designed by Peter Moore and released on 14 February 2020 as part of the Air Jordan 1 line. This release has a leather upper in Varsity Red/White/Black. Varsity Red is the plainest statement this shoe can make. Red, white and black are the colours the line was born in, and putting varsity red across the High is closer to a uniform than a design exercise. The shoe underneath is the one Nike produced for Michael Jordan in November 1984 and released to the public on 1 April 1985 after signing him on 26 October 1984 to a six year deal worth 2.5 million dollars, roughly three times any other contract in the league, with a royalty on sales that was almost unheard of. Nike expected around three million dollars of sales across three years. The first fifty thousand pairs sold out and the shoe went past 150 million dollars.
A red High is loud, so build around it. Black jeans, a white tee and a black jacket is the version that has worked since the eighties and still does. For a more current shape, try wide grey trousers that stack just above the collar with a cream sweatshirt so the red reads as a single block at the floor. Skip other reds entirely. Size true, lace through the top eyelet only if you want the collar locked, and expect a stiff first fortnight. Clean the white midsole with a sponge and mild soap, brush the panels dry, and store with paper in the toe so the shape holds through winter.
Red is the colour that started the argument. The league's uniform policy required shoes to be at least 51 percent white, the shoe actually cited was the Nike Air Ship prototype Jordan wore before the Air Jordan I released, and Nike paid the 5,000 dollar per game fine and built its Banned advertising around it instead of changing the shoe. That decision taught the sneaker market that transgression sells, a lesson every brand has since copied. Spike Lee, directing and playing Mars Blackmon, put the shoe into film language, and rappers including 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Ice Cube and Jay-Z made the palette permanent.
The High is the full original pattern: a tall collar with the Wings mark at the ankle, layered panels rather than printed colour, a padded tongue and a flat rubber cupsole that keeps you close to the floor. Red panels over a white midsole make the shape read from across a street, and because the colour blocking follows the seams, the build quality is visible rather than hidden. There is no visible Air unit in this pattern, that technology entered the line from the Air Jordan II, and the ride is firm, stable and honest. Red leather dulls if it dries out, so condition occasionally, brush after wear and keep the midsole clean, since white is the first thing that ages.
- Cut
- High Top
- Upper
- Leather
- Colourway
- Varsity Red
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