Description
NEW RELEASE – B&W Art Print , Air Jordan 1 High ‘Chicago’ 1985 . The drawing was created with Prismacolor black & white pencil on grey Canson paper.
The ‘85 Jordans were found and photographed at Top Shelf Kicks in Caldwell, NJ.
ABOUT THE SNEAKER
Arguably the most iconic sneaker of all time, the Air Jordan 1 changed the footwear industry. Back in 1984, a young Michael Jordan was looking to sign with a sneaker brand. MJ originally wanted to sign with Adidas but Nike’s commitment to creating a signature shoe as well as offering him a 25% royalty for every Air Jordan sold was enough for MJ to commit to Nike.
Originally designed by Nike’s creative director Peter Moore, very little details were given by Jordan on how he would have liked his 1st sneaker. His only notes were that he wanted the sneaker to be lower cut than other on the market and that he wanted them to be exciting.
Two of the main features of the sneaker that are showcased in the painting are the large Nike swoosh (the only Air Jordan to have the swoosh) and the Wings logo. The Wings logo, drawn on the back of a napkin by Moore, is a combination of a basketball with wings and the words “Air Jordan”.
According to sneaker collector and former ProServ employee Kris Arnold, based on his conversations with Peter Moore, Nike’s original plan was for two primary Air Jordan colorways: a white/black/red colorway (now known as the “Black Toe”) for home games and black/red for road games (now commonly referred to as the “Bred”).
Arnold says that, due to the threat of being fined, Nike adapted with an alternate colorway that met NBA regulations. This model is now referred to as the “Chicago” colorway.