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During early 1984, Nike was in serious jeopardy in the fast paced sportswear market. Suffering from its "white man jogging brand" image, Nike had no credit in the basketball world. The running shoe phenomenon that had fueled their sales in previous years was slowly dying, and they needed a way to revitalize and reinvent themselves in order to appeal to another segment of the market. Air jordan That is when Nike saw something special in the rookie player Michael Jordan, they saw a chance, an opportunity. Nike signed Jordan to a $2.5 million deal for 5 years, plus royalties and other fringe benefits. The introduction of the Air Jordan 1 turned the athletic shoe industry upside up. Before theAir Jordan 1, most basketball shoes were white, but the bold black and red styling of the Air Jordan 1 flouted this convention. The NBA banned the shoe from the league in response, but Michael Jordan wore them anyway, racking up serious fines of up to $5000 a game. Nike, of course, was more than happy to pay these to keep the shoes in the game and in the public eye. All this controversy and Jordan’s spectacular performance that year served to put the Air jordan I sneaker line on the road to becoming a household name. Air Jordan have consistently been among the best selling basketball shoes since their creation in 1985. The designers take his ideas, hobbies, and life into account and incorporate these themes into the shoes.

 Air jordan I sneaker Air Jordan 1 Designed by Peter Moore and released in 1985, the Air Jordan I pair of sneakers was considered a breakthrough in basketball shoe design,although its design was improved upon later with the Nike Dunk. The shoe initially gained a great deal of publicity and interest when the National Basketball Association disallowed usage of the shoe during games because its vibrant black and red color violated the league's uniform rules and fined Michael Jordan five thousand dollars every time he wore the shoes during a game. Nonetheless, other shoe companies scrambled to emulate the design and introducing knock-off brands of the Air Jordan line. In 1994 the Air Jordan 1 was re-released with dismal success, they soon went on clearance for $70(these shoes are now worth $600+) When the Jordan I shoes model was reintroduced in 2001, they sold out instantly. The first colors unveiled were the banned black/red design, due to a violation within the leagues uniform policy regarding its lack of support. On March 29, 2008, a Retro 1 tribute to Jordan's baseball days with the Birmingham Barons were released. The shoes were a quick strike release.

Air jordan II The Jordan II shoes model was released after Jordan's rookie year in the NBA. The Air Jordan II featured high quality Italian leather and its design was inspired from a 19th century Italian woman's boot. These were the only shoes from the Air Jordan line to not originally be released in a black color placement. Reintroduced in its original color scheme in 2004 (black, white, and red), a new black/silver colorway was released as well as a Carmelo Anthony colorway of white, Carolina Blue, and yellow. The Air jordan II sneaker was also the first Nike sneaker to not feature the Nike swoosh logo. They were featured briefly in the movie School Daze. The Air Jordan II was actually released during the 87-88 NBA season. This is Jordan's third year in the league, as he wore the Air Jordan I for his first two years.

Air jordan III

The Jordan IV shoeswas first released in 1989, designed once again by Tinker Hatfield. It became the first Jordan shoe released on the global market, with some exceptions. The Air Jordan IV cushioning sole and design helped to make the shoe an international bestseller. Spike Lee, the director/actor who helped in the ad campaign for the Air Jordan III, created the Can/Can't TV commercial. Lee also featured the Air Jordan IV in his movie Do The Right Thing in a scene where the character "Buggin Out" (played by Giancarlo Esposito) angrily confronts a bicyclist who accidentally bumps into him and scuffs his Air jordan IV sneaker . After the confrontation, Buggin Out promptly places his shoe on a fire hydrant and cleans it with a toothbrush. The shoe was retroed in 1999 in a white/black colorway and a black/cement colorway, and stores were sold out of Air Jordan IV within hours of release. However, when Nike released the first Retro+ model of the Air Jordan IV, many fans of the shoe claimed that the company had "destroyed a classic" by removing the nets on the shoe along with making some other subtle changes. One example being "NIKE AIR" logo featured on the back of the shoe being replaced with the Jumpman logo. In 2006, Nike released several variations of the Air Jordan 4, including "Mars Blackmons" ("Red" IV's with Spike Lee's alter ego on the heel), "Military Blues", and the $500 "Thunder and Lightning" package. Also released the Mist blue color and all white and all black. These particular variations of the shoe also takes part in the inspiration of the Air Jordan Spiz'ike (the shoe's side-lace strap). The original Air Jordan 5 was released in February 1990, again designed by Hatfield. Some elements were the same from the Air Jordan IV, but the Air Jordan V's most distinctive feature is arguably its reflective tongue. There was also another innovation: clear rubber soles. The soles gave the shoe a whole new and unique look, but it yellowed over time when exposed to moisture. To combat this problem, collectors stored the shoes in a cool, dry place with a desiccant at the soles, most commonly silica packs TheAir jordan V sneaker also featured a base top with lace locks, making strapping on the shoe easy. The lacelock feature partly inspired the Air Jordan Spiz'ike. The Air Jordan V model is considered to have the best structure and design to wear during basketball games and sold the most pairs of shoes from the Air Jordan line. Hatfield is believed to have drawn inspiration for the Air Jordan V from the World War II Mustang fighter plane; which is most notably visible in the shark teeth shapes on the midsole. The Jordan V shoes was retroed in 2000 to great demand, including a new colorway featuring Michael Jordan's high school (Laney High) colors. In 2006 several re-retro V's had released including the very popular LS "Grape" V's, the LS "burgundy" V's and the popular "Fire-Red" V's. Along with the latter, a very limited laser design and the black/metallic/fire red colorways were released in early 2007. In the month of May 2009, Air Jordan conformed the release of an "DMP II" consisting of two Air Jordan V's. In March, there has been recent picture leaks of this product,which is also referred as "The Raging Bull" Package. The most of the leaked pictures are of the first Jordan V color way which consist of a composition of buttery varsity red suede on the upper. Paired alongside the eye-catching color is black on the midsole, lace area, tongue and a crystal-clean sole and the classic 3M material tongue.The second color way features a 3M material base with black laces and midsole. The retail price is yet to be confirmed.

The Air Jordan 6 was released in late 1990 and designed by Tinker Hatfield. Jordan won his first NBA Championship wearing these sneakers. In 2000, an olympic colorway was released with a mixture of white, royal blue, and a hint of red (lacelocks) to symbolize the U.S.A. colors. In 2008, a second Olympic colorway was released that consisted of an all-white patent leather upper, black tongue, and all of the Olympic rings' colors on the midsole. On the toebox of the shoe is an embroidered Chinese flower as a symbol of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The entire tongue, and part of the lace locks of the Jordan VI were inspiration for the Air Jordan Spiz'ike.To celebrate the defining moment of Jordan’s first championship, Nike released a commemorative Black/Gold Air jordan VI sneaker packaged with a White/Black/Gold Jordan 11 sold as the “Defining Moments Package”.

 Air jordan VII The Air jordan VII sneaker was released in late 1991. Tinker Hatfield created the Air Jordan VII which had many similarities with the Air Jordan VI model. The Air Jordan VII was unique because it used some of the Nike Huarache technology to create a shoe that really stuck to the consumer's foot. The visible air sole, the Nike Air logo, and the yellowing soles all were no longer featured on theJordan VI shoes. The Air Jordan VII model is also commonly known as the "Hares" because the commercials promoting the shoe featured cartoon character Bugs Bunny. When Jordan went to compete at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics to play for the US Men's Basketball Team (also known as the "Dream Team"), Nike released a special Olympic color combo of the Air Jordan VII model which featured Jordan's Olympic jersey number, 9 while all of the previous Air Jordan models that featured his jersey number had always been the number 23. Various retros of the Air Jordan VII were released in 2002, again in 2004, and again with different colors in 2006. Also in 2008 Nike released a black and blue pair owned only by Cheikh Mbacké, ordered for $600.[citation needed]

The article is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Jordan