Anybody who follows professional sports knows that February is a deadzone. NFL is over, ESPN pretends to care about MLB spring training, 80% of the NBA is in a mid-season slump, and hockey is hockey. So in 2013, sports media decided to fill up February programming slots by giving the most ubiquitous athlete in the history of sports even more attention because of his 50th birthday. There may one day be a better player than Jordan, but there probably won’t be one with better marketing and merchandising. (See: Any Kobe shoe.) If you have been alive for over a decade, you’ve likely owned something with a Jumpman on it; Lebron could fulfill his promise of eight championships, and still wouldn’t make it to that level.
Jordan’s career had been as much about championships as sneakers and advertising. M.J. will forever be “the greatest,” because he existed at a moment when an athlete could revolutionize a sport to a point that his personal brand influences something as distant as skateboarding.
The shoe parallels are obvious: Anybody who saw the Bones Brigade documentary (it’s on Netflix Instant, by the way) remembered that the Dunk/Jordan 1 was a skater favorite long before skate boutiques got SB accounts. The Caballero (before it got cut down to the Half Cab) had a bit of Jordan DNA in its design. The brand would even become indirectly responsible for the unfortunate air bubble craze of the late nineties.
February is a deadzone for skate content too, so here is a look back at some of the skaters who have most visibly been inspired by Jordan, sometimes beyond mere footwear.
From an issue of Skateboarder. Mid 2000s-ish.
At a time when the dress code prohibited non black and white shoes, the original Jordans were initially banned from the NBA. The Bones Brigade seemed to dig them, though. Do you think those guys got into debates about whether they were still “core” for skating in basketball shoes? If not, do you think they would have if the Slap message board was around in 1986?
The black/royal blue colorway Lance Mountain is wearing below is the one they chose to retro for Jordan’s 50th birthday. It’s coming out this Saturday, which means there should be a line forming in front of the Foot Locker on 34th Street in the next 24 hours. Related violence TBD.
No clue what “Mark Gonzales and his paint pen” is in reference to (See Skateboarder blurb above), obviously because it has to do with art. Anyone?
Do you think a guy who put a “23” on his pro model Etnies shoe, started a company called 23, and had a picture of a XV on a deck was inspired by Jordan?
Ronnie Bertino, Ray Barbee, Jason Dill, Clyde Singleton and a lot of notable nineties-era footwear, including a pair of XIIIs.
Menace, given the crew’s penchant for #urban fashions of the era, was instrumental in progressing the use of non-Jordan I models in skateboarding. Notable Quartersnacks associate, Alexander Mosley, has also been a known advocate of skating non-Jordan I releases in the modern era.
Somewhere, there is a photo of Billy Rohan doing a blunt stall in the same Jordan IVs. Except his were fake.
A great look with ankle monitors.
And this is just all around awesome:
Naturally, most of these scans have been lifted from The Chrome Ball Incident.
Rob pluhowski
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LeWrzUD1_JU/UM6yLIhhGGI/AAAAAAAAXIo/U2EQ5loh-e4/s1600/pluollieevolchrome.jpg
Those shoes Gino is wearing in the Yeah Right credits aren’t just Dunk HIs?
I love Jordan. I also love watermelon. Your totally filling my valentines day with love! Thank you snack
Nah pretty sure those are Jordans: http://www.flightclubny.com/p.php?fc=ny&c=aj&sc=aj1&i=010002
@ kurt ko bangz allegedly there have been several possible Jordan SB’s that still may or may not happen
Pete Eldridge skated white Jordan 3’s for a two trick line in an On Video that was really dope too
Wade Desarmo does a line in Jordan 5s at Burnt Cat in Philly. At 2:09, but the whole part is dope.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAfZEvrN6Qc
Or were those 3s? Fuck do I know?
jesus fernandez sand gaps line in yeah right.black and blue 1s best skate footage of jordans ever period.
EAST COAST DEAD CIRCA 2002
R.I.P CITY HALL
R.I.P BURNT CAT
R.I.P. KEVIN TAYLOR ‘S YELLOW ASS EYES ON THE BENCH
R.I.P SECRET SPOT 3 BLOCK
why are you kooks talking about shoes?
waddup wit the shop
Good stuff. There’s no way that’s Ray Barbee up there, though. Also, Sal Barbier maintains – in various interviews- that 23 was his number from a young age and then a one Michael Jordan just so happened to come along. Fausto Vitello too: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f1/Fausto.jpg&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fausto_Vitello&h=224&w=160&sz=1&tbnid=1B5NLR-aclv18M:&tbnh=186&tbnw=132&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dfausto%2Bvitello%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=fausto+vitello&usg=__DQVGq1gid7IGTYXFnW0c0DzTZDQ=&docid=OafDKNKo55TOsM&itg=1&sa=X&ei=JPQdUYDWFa_EiwLc04HICw&ved=0CH0Q_B0wCg
Please ignore previous comment. It wasn’t funny and we didn’t mean to send it. Tried
to make it light and funny. Turned out stupid and lame. Love the site.
Keep up the great work. Apologies.
That photo’s from Sal Barbier’s Instagram and he says it’s Ray Barbee: http://instagram.com/p/ghMnw/
Unrelated: This is really sick – http://chromeballincident.blogspot.com/2013/02/chrome-ball-incident-868-beans-for.html
i think the paint pen thing is in reference to this photo: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0e1iwF2Xx1qdvfoio1_500.jpg
I didn’t leave the comment by ‘a’, so whatever. This is getting nitpicky, but a few comments down on said Instagram, Sal chimes ‘sorry for the mixup, it’s actually me. I always get us confused.’ Let’s not forget Ray has maintained a beard since at least the early 90’s.
I bet the Bones Brigade could give a rip. As of Animal Chin, you had Vans, Airwalk, and a very young Etnies to seek sponsorship from. I feel like it wasn’t until skating died that people focused more on skater owned. When the money goes away so do a lot of people.
Wade des Ormeux is not wearing Jordan’s in the, “Top of The World”, part at 2:09mins specified Lloyd Braun, they are in fact suprisingly a DC shoes model that were AJ 3s rip offs.
Pretty sure Colin MacKay talks about the rip off in some DC interview and that it was his idea to do the Jordan rip off.
Wade des Ormeux definetly rocks Jordans in his recent DGK Parental Advisory section though.
February is definitely not a dead zone for sports. you forgot about FUTBOL!!!
I live in America, of course I forgot about futbol.
You mean soccer
the only time soccer is alowed by americans is during world cup, Because it gives us every right to be blatantly racist towards other countries.