Well, that was ridiculous. Jordan Brand always does it up big, and they did it again today. For those of you who missed our first post from earlier in the day when we revealed your first official look at the Air Jordan 2012, I’m chilling in Hoboken, New Jersey and attended the official launch earlier today. They drove us out to this private air hangar – the Teterboro Airport – that had an enormous Jumpman logo plastered on the side, and it was on. A stage and behind that, a huge projector screen flipping through pictures of some of the most classic Jordans ever. Skee-Lo bumping. Even Tinker Hatfield was there – the greatest sneaker designer ever – for the official launch of the Air Jordan 2012.
As for the sneaker, Tinker says it was inspired by a historic area in Portland called “Jumptown.” Back in the day – I’m talking 1920s to the 1960s – this was where everyone went to listen to jazz music. At the start of the design process, which Tinker admits “We can’t develop Jordans on a normal 18-moth timeline,” he was working to renovate the area and it hit him.
The style of clothing was outlandish: wild shoes and Fedora hats. The colors were always really amped up, and from there the inspiration for a sneaker that is part basketball shoe and part wing tip was born. When MJ came to Portland to check in, he noticed immediately.
“It’s the wing tip!” he cried, pointing at the toe of the shoe.
Tinker kept pushing for more masculinity in the sneaker, and when he combined that with his idea to have the most customizable Jordan shoe ever, they came up with this. Now, there are three different inserts you can work your way through depending on what you’re looking for in a sneaker: hops, quickness or power. Easily interchangeable. During the wear testing, I went with the quick insert and was thoroughly impressed. From the minute I laced them up, my feet were in Heaven.
The first two colorways drop tomorrow – the Carolina blues and the Wolf Greys – and once midnight strikes, you can find them online at the Nike store.
In the end, Tinker summed it all up with this:
“If the shoes don’t work for the best players in the world then we’ve failed.”
Check back with me later this week as I will post up some more photos of what went down, and plan on running a diary tomorrow. Why? Jordan is flying me down to check out the North Carolina and Duke game. It should be beyond dope. For now, hit the jump for a photo gallery of some sneakers from today. Many of these will never hit stores.
What do you think?
Follow Sean on Twitter at @SEANesweeney.
Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.
Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE.
