UPDATED: The Unveiling Of The Air Jordan XX8

Our guy Sean Sweeney is at the unveiling of the Jordan XX8 today in New York City, and the newest kicks in the tradition of Michael Jordan’s line lives up to the hype. Stay with Dime as we update this post with all the details and views of the sights and scenes — and of course the shoes — from today’s unveiling.

Here’s some notes from the unveiling: Spike Lee, legendary Jordan designer Tinker Hatfield, Carmelo Anthony and Russell Westbrook — brought onto the Jordan Family earlier this fall — all made appearances. Westbrook will debut the shoe tomorrow night for Oklahoma City.

This is the most tested Jordan shoe ever, according to the Jordan team, and with an 8-inch tall shoe carries the silhouette of a military boot as if you are going into figurative battle. It’s got a piston-style outsole with Nike Zoom Air included.

The zipper on the shoe takes its design clue from the movies of James Bond and Arnold Schwarzenegger, where you can zip into a new outfit instantly. When the team took a prototype to MJ himself, he loved it so much he wanted to wear it right there. Hatfield wants to tell a story with each shoe, much in the way a movie does, and he calls it creating a “romance.” When Tinker asked Jordan what stealth meant to him in the sense of this shoe’s stealth, military inspiration, Hatfield said, MJ responded: Stealth is like a black cat. It’s an automatic aircraft. You can’t fuck with an automated aircraft. It’s like my game. By the time you see it, it’s too fucking late.

Hit the jump to see more photos from the unveiling…

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