A collection inspired by the city that never sleeps, the birthplace of Michael Jordan and Awake NY.
Michael Jordan and NY
Although Michael Jordan’s basketball career was linked to North Carolina, Chicago, and, while not everyone wants to remember it, Washington. But there is one city in which Michael only played as a visitor but left a greater impact than the others. Michael Jordan was born in New York, which he considers to be his own. His parents, James and Deloris, met in North Carolina (appropriately, at a basketball game in which James played) and only lived in New York for eighteen months while Michael’s father was training as a mechanic. It was long enough for Mike to be born in Brooklyn, at Cumberland Hospital, where another sports star, Mike Tyson, was born. Michael Jordan’s relationship with New York began as a game of contrasts, but as his career progressed, Michael returned to his hometown and became the fiercest of rivals. NY and Michael’s relationship was unique.
Angelo Baque and New York: Awake NY
Angelo Baque, the founder of Awake NY, was born in Queens in the late 1970s, the ideal time to witness Michael’s dominance as a player, endure his interventions as a rival at Madison Square Garden, and, of course, learn about his influence on the city’s style. For a city accustomed to creating and defining styles, seeing Michael impose baggy trousers and trainers with his signature was like a provocation that they had no choice but to succumb to.
Jordan’s brand influence began in New York with Michael’s style, but it grew to include some of the city’s icons, such as Spike Lee, Derek Jeter, and Carmelo Anthony.
Jordan x Awake NY “Where i’m from”
So, when Awake NY considered its new collaboration with Jordan, the theme seemed obvious: the city that served as a point of convergence between one and the other, the place where both were born. The collection includes a varsity jacket, t-shirt, hoodie, shorts, cap and the Air Ship, Michael’s first professional shoe and the one that cemented his legacy.
The Jordan x Awake NY collection incorporates references from Michael’s early years with the Bulls, such as the diamond pattern on the trousers and the number 84 on the sleeve of the jacket, while also transforming classic colours into something new through a washing process and adding a snake print, which appears on the Air Ship in red and other garments in grey. The Jordan and Awake NY logos, merged in a new design, or the collection’s slogan “Where I am from,” refer to the birthplaces of the two parties involved in this alliance.
The Jordan x Awake NY “Where I’m from” collection will be available from April 13 at FOOTDISTRICT.