The Jordan 1 mid has become something of a joke to a lot of sneakerheads. Jordan Brand today positions the shoe as a more affordable option for those who can’t afford a Jordan 1 high. To reach that price point, they use lower quality materials and less of them. They also will take classic color combos and change them just enough to make it not satisfy the urge for a classic.
There are several classic shoes that can trace much of what makes them popular back to a single pop culture moment. Harrison Ford picking his old Alden 405s (now called the “Indys” in his honor) instead of the Red Wings on Raiders of the Lost Ark. Keanu Reeves choosing the Torsion Artillery Hi to match Bill & Ted’s attitude. All of those shoes are priced to match their celebrity status, but there is one classic that you can pick up for less than the price of getting Chinese delivered – The Vans Checkerboard Slip-Ons.
In honor of the 3rd Bill & Ted coming out this year, Kid Cudi and Adidas teamed up to release the original design on the Torsion Artillery Hi. With these still sitting on shelves, is this a worthwhile shoe to pick up?
The original Jordan 1 Midnight Navy CO.JP is one of the rarest Jordan 1s to ever drop. A Japanese exclusive from 2001, the brand only released 3,000 pairs. Thankfully, in honor of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that never happened, Jordan Brand and Nike are rereleasing several of the Japan-exclusive colorways of their sneakers.
Five years ago, if you went on most of the men’s fashion forums and asked which classic white sneaker you should buy you would have received one answer – the Adidas Stan Smith. Using google to search reddit, you come up with 63,000 posts mentioning them. While the hype has died down a bit, it’s hard to argue the impact this one sneaker has had.
Originally shown with the Chicago color blocking, the connection to the Travis Scott 1s was obvious. Once it was announced that the brown on the shoe would be nubuck instead of regular leather like the first mock up, it didn’t take long to earn the nickname the “poor man’s Travis Scott 1.”
The Air Jordan One is one of those classic sneakers that almost every can recognize. The shoe has been adopted by a variety of groups. Starting off as the latest in basketball shoe technology, throughout the years they have been worn by skaters, hip hop artists, hypebeasts, celebrities, and seemingly everyone in between.
Like it or not, when the average person thinks of a Yeezy sneaker, they are thinking of the 350 V2. According to StockX, there have been well over 50 colorways of the sneaker released so far and even with the supposed replacement in the 380 nearly a year old, it doesn’t appear like Adidas is planning on slowing down any time soon.
Adidas’ Boost technology was completely revolutionary. It was comfortable, unique looking, and sold out in almost every shoe it was attached once Kanye wore those classic white Ultraboosts. Unfortunately, this left Adidas in a tough position: what do you do next? How do you build upon something that changed the industry? The answer was the introduction of what Adidas calls “4D”.
The Air Jordan 1 High and the Nike Dunk High are closer to twins separated at birth than two completely different shoes. They share the same dad (Peter Moore), the same birth year (1985), and, unless you grew up with them in your life, you probably have a hard time telling them apart.