With its debut in 1985, the Air Jordan 1 is considered to be a turning point in basketball shoe design. Designed by Peter Moore, this shoe gained much of its initial hype by being banned by the NBA. The league stated that the black and red shoe violated its color rules for sneakers. Seeing the success of the Air Jordan, many other shoe companies hurried to create similar designs.
Original Jordans came with two sets of laces, one for each color on the “colorway” of the shoe. For example, the red/black shoe came with red laces and black laces. Including “sample” designs, twenty-three different “colorways” were created.
The white/black-red and black/red Air Jordan 1 was released as a retro in 1994 and sold very poorly, however in 2001 they released them again in patent leather and the demand was much greater. Despite the changing of the times, the Air Jordan line has managed to survive controversy and changes in fashion while producing a quality basketball shoe.