Michael Jordan has a lifetime role as basketball’s tastemaker. The Jordan Brand is an NBA sneaker powerhouse, and despite excellent efforts from Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, and the host of overseas brands, Jordans are special. They’re Jordans. The name and brand carry a certain weight to it that the others don’t, as good as their products might be.
Jordan brought baggy shorts to the NBA in his heyday, and now, thanks to a partnership with streetwear icon Don C, he’s trying to bring short shorts back into basketball culture. Don C, aka Just Don, aka Chicago’s own Don Crawley, has partnered with Jordan Brand on sneaker projects in the past, and this isn’t even Just Don’s first foray into the short short game, but with Jordan and a NCAA license, they are cooking up something really special.
Introducing the Just Don x Jordan collection:
It’s a dramatic change of pace for the Jordan Brand, and the product page did a nice job explaining their thought process here.
Today, shorts are getting shorter again as street fashion moves to a preference for slimmer fits. It’s a trend players utilize off the court, and it has bled onto the court as players choose uniforms and sizes that fit closer to their bodies and move with them.
The long shorts may have had their heyday in the 1990s and will always be emblematic of that era, but the look remains a part of the zeitgeist thanks in part to Don C’s work at Just Don, where he designs and manufactures luxury athletic shorts with a 1990s silhouette and aesthetic. Bold colors and graphics meet updated details and impeccable construction, blending together on shorts that are as opulent as they’ve ever been.
All of this is true. The new Nike NBA uniforms are noticeably slimmer. LeBron James has been pretty open about his desire for shorter shorts and a tighter, cleaner fit for every aspect of the NBA uniform. The movement is already happening.
Chris Haynes reported for Cleveland.com back in 2015 that LeBron “trimmed his uniform shorts by a couple inches, and had his jersey made snugger than in years past. He had expressed to those close to him he wants to leave the baggy look behind and place a renewed emphasis on professional appearance when it comes to the size of his uniform as well as his pregame and postgame attire”.
We’re not quite at full John Stockton yet, but with LeBron James on board, and the power of Jordan x Don C, we’ll be there before you know it.
