The Evolution of Jordans.

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In 1984, Nike signed Chicago Bulls 3rd draft pick, Michael Jordan to a 5 year endorsement contract. This was shortly after Jordan won a National Title at the University of North Carolina and a Gold Medal at the Olympics in Los Angeles. Jordan being so young, many doubted he could handle a big contract like the one had taken on. He had never worked in marketing commodity, but Michael proved every critic wrong.
Nike gave Jordan’s line of shoes their own logo, which was never done before in any of Nike’s basketball efforts. The first released Jordans, the Air Jordans I, was designed by Peter Moore. This shoe included the famous Nike swoosh. The Air Jordan I was design looked familiar to many shoes that were also released in 1980 like the Air Force I, Terminator and Dunk. Although the Air Jordan I was not the first colored shoe, it did pave the way for more colorful shoes to be released. In a 1985 NBA game, Michael Jordan wore the Air Jordan I, which was selling for $65, at the time those were the most expensive shoes on shelves. The Air Jordan I black/red was banned from the NBA because most basketball shoes were a solid white. For every game Jordan decided to break the rules, and wear the banned shoes, he was fined $5,000. Nike was happy to pay the bill though, since it raised gossip of the shoe.
Since the Air Jordan I created a lot of talk, Jordan came out with the Air Jordan II. The Air Jordan II was designed by Bruce Kilgore, who also designed the Air Force I. The Nike swoosh was not included on this shoe, but it did include a simple and clean design. The Air Jordan II was known for its Italian inventiveness, so it included a lot of upgrades from the Air Jordan I. This shoe included a full length Air unit that fluffed up the mi...

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...ram on the top corner of the shoe resembled the eye of a panther and the outsole had a paw-like design. The Air Jordan XIII became one of the most comfortable shoes in the Jordan line due to the heel and forefoot Zoom Air, a Phylon midsole and podular tooling. The Air Jordan XIII was brought back in 10 colorways in 2004 and 2005.
Michael continued his Jordan line in 23 different designs. It was after the Air Jordan XIV, that Michael was not playing basketball anymore; designer Tinker Hatfield was now designing shoes for looks and not for playing basketball. Even today, Air Jordans are still rising and still creating a lot of talk as they did in 1984. Many great basketball players have worn Air Jordans, and are following the steps of Michael’s path to luxury. Jordan has proven every critic that doubted the prospering of his shoe line, wrong and continues to do so.

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