Air (2023)

I am a huge basketball fan. It started when I was roughly 13 or 14 years old.  This is before smartphones and fast, reliable internet. I’m showing my age. I used to go to the local library and sift through the NBA Encyclopedia. I would read over all the different statistics of various players, memorizing numbers and years. I could tell you that in the ‘99-’00 season Tim Duncan averaged a career-best 23.2 points per game and 12.4 rebounds. I was obsessed with stats and spent as much time studying them as I would my homework. 

I played it often as well. I had my sneakers, shorts, and beaten-up t-shirts. My gear if you will. Thus far, you can picture me as your run-of-the-mill recreational ball-playing NBA superfan. And here is where I draw a line.  

Let's talk about 'kicks', slang for sneakers. I was a utility kind of guy, caring less about style or fashion and more about sturdiness, durability, and comfort. There’s a story that early in his career, Michael Jordan’s sneakers used to leave him with bloody feet. They were that rigid.  But boy did they look flashy.  

I’ve never owned a pair of Jordans, the Nike sneakers branded and endorsed by Michael Jordan, the GOAT in many circles. They were always either too expensive or too clunky for my tastes. But they flew off the shelves. Every edition. I had friends who would sleep in the parking lots the night before a Jordan sneaker release and there would still be a line around the block. Many would purchase but not even wear these sneakers, instead stashing them as collector items. 

What’s the appeal you might wonder? I passed on them numerous times and never batted an eyelash. Well, there are the unique color combinations of red, black, and white (team colors for the Chicago Bulls) and the fact that only a limited number of shoes were available, making each version a rare commodity. But I would argue that it's this last point that made (and still make) Jordan’s sneakers so appealing.  

It’s the idea that if you put on these sneakers you can fly just like Michael. I think this cuts right to the core of what makes the Air Jordan brand so successful. “If I could be like Mike” went the catchy jingle that showed up in the early nineties.  Popularly parodied by Charles Barkley during that Dream Team run in 1992.  Michael Jordan brought something to basketball, and sports at large that had never been seen before. A kind of athleticism, grace, and competitiveness that made him not only a spectacle but practically an artist, expressing himself on the court and in the air with every movement.