A story about the Air Jordan 11 Concord
With all of the hype surrounding the return of the Air Jordan 11 Concord, a look back is in order. There’s a lot of history behind this shoe. It is, after all, one of MJ’s favorites. It’s also the shoe that signaled the GOAT’s return to basketball. Here, we take a look at some of the interesting notes behind this model’s origins.
The beginning
This is a fascinating element of the Concord for a number of reasons. The Air Jordan 11 didn’t necessarily need the hype this colorway received. Again, it would forever be associated with the time Jordan returned to the court. It was destined for the sneaker Pantheon.
But, the Concords got some special attention from the start. Several factors would occur during and around the 1995 NBA season. Specifically, it all centered on the Eastern Conference Playoffs of that year.
Jordan brought out the Concords during Game 1. He donned this model on his way to another dominating performance. He also happened to catch some flack from the league. The White/ Black look came with a “Concord” sole. This combination was in direct violation of NBA uniform guidelines. Jordan was thus fined $5,000 for wearing them on the court.
The Concords also shouldn’t have been out of the testing runs to begin with. By the time Jordan threw them on, Tinker was begging him not to. Nike designers weren’t done, well, tinkering with them. In the most MJ move imaginable, the Bulls legend wore them anyway.
During Game 3 of the same series, Jordan relented for just a bit. He decided to borrow shoes from Penny Hardaway and strip the logo off. He didn’t totally concede, though. Game 4 would prove that.
The culture
During that fourth game, sideline reporter Ahmad Rashad spotlighted the Concords on national TV. There were detailed zoom-ins and a description of the shoe’s design. That small part of the national broadcast was basically a sneaker blog post before that was a thing.
What inevitably resulted was some serious hype. The Concords would eventually release towards the end of the year. The reception they got was feverish. Everyone needed a pair. That feature to a national NBA audience worked. Even non-Jordan fans needed to cop.
Nike would advertise this colorway as a “tuxedo” for your feet. This would fall in line with an interesting trend off the court. People started wearing these shoes to formal events. More and more sightings were confirmed at proms, galas, and red carpet premiers. Jordan himself wore them to a wedding!
The influence that the Air Jordan 11 Concord had was massive. It quickly became a grail. News of a retro, back in 2000, was greeted with applause. In fact, every retro of this shoe since then has seen rabid fans.
The line-ups were staggering and even led to a critical moment in sneaker culture. Nike noticed that releasing retros at midnight was a safety concern for staff and customers. The Concords only made these concerns even larger. As a result, the brand went ahead and changed this rule.
To put it mildly, there’s a whole lot of history behind this colorway. Moreover, we don’t know when this shoe will retro again. So, copping would be wise!
It could be yours this December 8th at 9am CET online & 11am CET in store.
