Air Jordan 1 Low Black Unc

This is a colour pairing that behaves like navy and black, which is to say it needs a little space. Recipe one: black jeans, a plain white tee and a denim jacket in a mid wash that echoes the blue without matching it. Recipe two: grey sweatpants, a black hoodie and a blue cap, where the blue at the head answers the blue at the foot and frames the outfit. Black socks. The low cut wants a cropped or single cuffed hem so the collar stays visible. These are the pair for daily commuting in this catalogue: the black upper forgives city grime, though the white sections of the midsole still need a wipe after wet days.

Two things gave this silhouette its authority and neither was a shoe review. Nike hired Spike Lee to direct the earliest Air Jordan advertising and cast him as Mars Blackmon opposite Michael Jordan, and hip hop did the rest, with 2Pac, The Notorious B.I.G., Ice Cube and Jay-Z writing Jordan and his sneakers into their records. That combination created sneaker collecting as a mass activity and a resale market valued at roughly 2 billion dollars. The UNC connection sits slightly apart from all that, which is why black and blue reads as an insider's colourway rather than a headline one.

Leather upper on a low collar with black holding the structural panels and University Blue placed where it will catch the eye in motion, usually the Swoosh, the collar and the branding. The dark ground makes this a considerably more practical daily pair than the white based blue makeups, since black leather absorbs scuffs the eye simply does not register. Flat rubber cupsole with the forefoot pivot circle underneath, firm and close to the ground, no cushioned foam. Care is straightforward: brush dust off the black weekly so it does not go grey, use a leather conditioner when the finish dulls, and keep any cleaner off the blue panel edges where strong solvent can lift the tone.