Jordan 10s

Mike is always right. If you doubt that, here’s a brief history of Jordan 10 for you.

After Jordan announced his retirement in 1993, Nike and Hatfield, the lead designer for the Air Jordan series, thought that Michael Jordan had left the game forever. So, to honor their long relationship with him, they decided to give him a tribute—in the form of Air Jordan 10. The shoe’s sole had Michael Jordan’s career timeline engraved on it. It ran like this:

85 ROOKIE OF YEAR
86 63 POINTS
87 SCORING TITLE
88 DUNK CHAMP
89 ALL DEFENSE
90 SCORES 63 POINTS
91 MVP/CHAMPIONSHIP
92 MVP/CHAMPIONSHIP
93 MVP/CHAMPIONSHIP
94 BEYOND

But, Michael Jordan didn’t like them. Not because they had his entire career on the outsole, but because it had the leather strip across the toe.

The leather strip has its own history. Very briefly, it was there on the first five Air Jordan models but was discontinued. The Air Jordan series had been running without the strip since the Jordan 5s, and Jordan had taken to it.

Now, he didn’t like it and told Tinker about it. What happened next?

Guess what Tinker (and Nike) obliged Mike. Mike’s never wrong, remember? They immediately discarded the strip (even after the first colorway had made its way into the stores), and retro version of the shoe was also released without it.

It stands out for being the only model in the series that came out in two shapes. The price for Jordan is mere $125.