The legend of the NBA banning Michael Jordan‘s first signature sneaker will grow in May with the release of a low-top replicating a treatment introduced 15 years ago.
The Air Jordan 1 Low “Banned” applies a cheeky “X” to heel of the model’s seminal “Bred” colorway, short for “black and red.” That mark, as well as the brief script from the first Air Jordan commercial printed across the left and right insoles, lean into the myth of the NBA barring Jordan from wearing the black and red Air Jordan 1s.
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“On September 25th, Nike created a revolutionary basketball shoe,” the insoles read. “On October 18th, 1984, they were thrown out of the game.”
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The two words “Imagine if…?” then appear on the inner-tongue tags as a call back to last year’s Air Jordan 1 40th anniversary campaign that explored what the world would look like had the shoe not become such a hit.
In truth, the NBA’s letter to Jordan warning him that uniform regulations prohibited his black and red sneakers came before he ever wore the Air Jordan 1 in a game. His Oct. 18 transgression came while wearing a pair of similarly colored Nike Air Ships, and he gave the Air Jordan 1 its on-court debut Nov. 17 in the more white-dominant “Chicago” colorway.
Nike has never let this qualifier get in the way of a good narrative, however, and in 2011 it released the high-top Air Jordan 1 “Banned” exclusively via outlet stores with little warning. Sneakerheads often used the “Banned” moniker interchangeably with “Bred,” but here it refers specifically to the treatment with the added “X.”
The Air Jordan 1 Low “Banned” will release on May 16 through the Snkrs app and select third-party retailers. Pricing is set at $145.
