![]() The real brilliance of the patent mudguard, though, is that it wasn’t just there for the shine: because it’s lighter and less stretchy than full-grain leather, it resulted in a more explosive shoe that held your feet snugly in place. And in 1995, people looked at these things like they’d just crash landed from another galaxy. Even now, that gleaming, tuxedo-aping patent leather is astonishing enough to elicit goosebumps from me, a grown man who has stared at these sneakers thousands of times over the past 25 years. Like all great Js, the XI is a seamless marriage of neck-snapping style and elite performance. ![]() MJ hit his pinnacle as an athlete during the ‘90s, and the pinnacle of his sneaker line during that decade-without question-is the Air Jordan XI. Add in the classic Mars Blackmon commercials that helped turn Jordan into the most marketable athlete alive, plus the fact that these are reportedly Mike’s favorite Js ever, and you’ve got yourself a clear number-one on a list full of legends. The design itself somehow feels retro and futuristic and totally timeless all at once, and the OG colorways gave us the elephant print that’s become a HOF-worthy sneaker culture staple. And it’s the first Jordan to feature the Jumpman, the only corporate logo to inspire both a life-sized bronze statue and an inescapable earworm of a Drake and Future song. It’s the first Jordan designed by Tinker Hatfield, the visionary who pioneered the exposed Air bubble, dreamt up Marty McFly’s self-lacing bangers, and blessed us with eight of the top 10 sneakers below. The Is began writing the story, the IIs removed the Swoosh from the sides, but the III is where everything that truly makes a J a J comes into play. The sneaker that catapulted the Air Jordan from just another signature line to a pop cultural phenomenon worth mythologizing, lining up for, debating over, and writing lists like this one about. Which means they’re ripe for a ranking-one both arbitrary and definitive. Instead, we’re going to say something perhaps a little obvious: that like all collections of great things (movie franchises, Philip Roth novels, Tyler, the Creator fits) there are hits, misses, and plenty of weird things in between. Or we could talk about the little things, like the irrational confidence you feel lacing them up on the blacktop or how good Frank Ocean looked in Royal 1s at Paris Fashion Week that one time or how intoxicating a fresh pair smells right out of the box, like Windex and freshly ground pepper. ![]() ![]() We could talk about their mystique: how they birthed sneaker culture as we know it how they irrevocably altered the worlds of sports and fashion and marketing how no other signature line-despite our current cover guy’s claims otherwise-has ever matched their exact formula of technical innovation and beautiful design and cultural prominence. ![]() There are a lot of things we could say here about Air Jordans, many of which you’ve probably heard before. It has been updated as of April 2022 to include the latest Air Jordan releases. This story was originally published in April 2020. ![]()
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