THE HISTORY OF THE NIKE AIR SHIP

When in 1984 the NBA famously banned Michael Jordan’s black, white and red basketball shoes for violating the league’s dress code, Nike used the ban to promote their new ‘Air Jordan’ line in what is now known as one of the most iconic basketball shoe commercials of all time.

“On September 15th, Nike created a revolutionary new basketball shoe. On October 18th, the NBA threw them out of the game. Fortunately, the NBA can’t stop you from wearing them.”

This commercial and the resulting hype it created laid the foundation of what Nike – and in consequence Jordan Brand – is today.

However, the shoe the NBA banned in October of ‘84 was not the Air Jordan 1 shown in the commercial. It could not have been. Michael Jordan did not start wearing the AJ1 until late November that year. Instead, the shoe that was banned was the all but forgotten Nike Air Ship.

The Air Ship, designed by legendary shoe designer Bruce Kilgore, came out in 1984 equipped with the same Air sole technology first introduced in basketball shoes in the ‘Air Force 1’ two years earlier. Other than that there was nothing particularly special about the Air Ship. It just happened to be the sneaker Nike gave Michael to play in because his signature Air Jordan 1 was not yet finished. It retailed at $35 which adjusted to inflation comes out to about $97 in 2023.

Jordan, the ‘84 NBA No. 3 draft pick, started wearing the Air Ship in preseason games of his rookie season. That’s when the NBA first noticed the – for that time – unusual colorway of black, red and white, now commonly known as ‘Bred’ among sneakerheads. As stated earlier, this color scheme was a violation of the dress code – which included footwear – which stated that teams were supposed to wear matching shoes and the shoes had to be at least 50% white. 

A black basketball shoe mixed with red was a novelty on the NBA floor where players wore primarily white sneakers with accent colors. Even in a non-consequential preseason game, this shoe stuck out like a sore thumb. So much so, that the league sent a letter to Nike warning them that wearing the shoe in a regular season game would result in a fine of $5.000 for Jordan every time he wore the shoes in-game, which according to sneaker legend, the brand gladly paid and MJ continued to wear the shoe.

Interestingly, if you look into the archives there is no evidence that Jordan actually wore the infamous black-red colorway during his rookie season with the exception of the NBA Dunk Contest during the ‘85 All-Star Weekend, where the league’s uniform rules did not apply. Yes, there are plenty of photos of Jordan wearing the Air Ship and later in the season the Air Jordan, but there is no photo of No. 23 actually playing in the shoe that he is wearing in the ‘Banned’ commercial. Instead, the photos show Jordan rocking the Air Ship in 'White-Red' and 'White-Natural' colorways the league had no problem with and later in the season wearing the Air Jordan 1 in the famous “Chicago” color scheme. The AJ1 was not available to buy for the public until March 1985 for a retail price of $65 which is about $180 today. The rest is history.

As for the shoe that is undeniably a part of the Jordan origin story, the Air Ship is coming back this week in a two-toned ‘White-University-Gold’ colorway that would not have violated the NBA’s dress code back in the day. This classic retro silhouette features a perforated toe box, a clean white leather base, touches of varsity gold accents on the swoosh, tongue and collar. A little booklet is included which explains all the little details that make the Air Ship an absolute gem and collector's item.

The Nike Air Ship in White-University-Gold is available at KICKZ on January 27th, 2023.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE NIKE AIR SHIP