SOLE COLLECTOR: Sneakers

SPACE

SPACE
Key Tech: Encapsulated Air-Sole unit (forefoot & heel), full-length Dynamic-Fit inner bootie, integrated anti-inversion strap system

Use: Hoops, Indoor and Outdoor

Position: All

Colorway Tested: White/Black /True Red

Price: $135

Pros: Very comfortable; very good side-to-side lockdown within the inner; excellent fit at the heel; solid impact protection; excellent traction so long as the outsole is kept clean; durable

Cons: Midsole starts out quite hard; ankle support, while very good, could have been better considering the shoe’s high cut; beefy outsole imparts a clunky feel underfoot, particularly at the rear; on the heavy side; the whole of the shoe fails to equal the sum of its parts

SPACE

PACE

THE END OF THE BEGINNING

IT’S A STORY THAT REALLY GETS UNDER WAY WITH THE Air Jordan III, which was the first Jordan shoe designed by the now legendary Tinker Hatfield. Of course, the III was preceded by Js I and II, but those shoes represented more of a prelude to what was to come than an act in and of themselves.

When viewed in this way, what becomes evident is that as the Air Jordan story unfolded, it became increasingly complex and technical. Staying on a literary tip, you could say that this progression is analogous to the evolution of the detective novel genre from the raw, almost sand-papery coarseness of Dashiell Hammett (he of The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man fame) to the technical, atomic-clock-like precision of a modern Tom Clancy spy novel (think The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games).

Each style has its adherents, but I think there’s a certain universality to Hammett’s simple matter-of-factness that wears better against the harsh winds of time. His most loved characters, Sam Spade and Nick and Nora Charles, seem as alive and imperfectly human today as they must have when Hammett first introduced them to the world over 70 years ago (I wasn’t around back then so I can’t say that with absolute certainty, but the popularity of his books, then as now, seems to indicate that his characters struck a chord). Clancy’s work, though undeniably thrilling, seems more bound to the accoutrements of our time than to any fundamental truths underlying our humanity and, as such, I don’t think it will resonate as strongly as the years go by.

Only time will tell in that case, but this notion seems clearly born out in the far shorter timespan within which the first act of the Air Jordan line played out. As the shoes became increasingly technical in appearance-a trend that culminated in the highly adorned Air Jordan VIII, which is the subject of this review-the level of emotional attachment they engendered upon their release seems to have diminished in kind. Just think: how many people cite the III and IV as their all-time favorite Jordans as compared to the VII and VIII?

As a performance proposition, the VIII definitely represents an advance over those older J’s, but even here it doesn’t quite spark the soul. With a thicker midsole, a far higher cut, two very prominent anti-inversion straps criss-crossing the front of the upper and overlays galore, the VIII provides a high level of protection. But that protection, no matter how comfortable the package it comes wrapped within, feels overdone-like an overprotective mother who won’t let her only child out to play.

The shoe’s drudging quality is further reinforced by its heft and somewhat clunky feel under the heel. These attributes give it substance and stability, but also helped make it that much less enjoyable to wear. For better or worse, the VIII seems a shoe designed not for the game of basketball, but for the business of basketball-a job it undertook to near perfection as it safely conveyed MJ through his third consecutive NBA Championship winning season. But in that, the shoe also seemed to capture MJ’s increasingly workaday view of the game he had come to so thoroughly dominate, a view which led him to his stunning first retirement one day before the start of training camp for the following season.

So, in more ways than one, the Air Jordan VIII can be seen as the end of the beginning of the Air Jordan story. With a six-part first act-plus an important two-part preface-Hatfield and Jordan not only rewrote the rules of athletic footwear design, but also invented an entirely new language with which to tell it. Over the course of those first eight years, the tale they wove would wend its way into the shoe stores, gyms, school hallways and, eventually, hearts of a budding generation of shoeheads the world over. But with the VIII, Hatfield had taken that first act as far as it could go (and perhaps a measure too far at that). While an admirable on-court performer in its day and even still in ours, the VIII lost a measure of the free-spirited effervescence of its more memorable predecessors. What folks back in 1993 couldn’t have known, though, is that the story wasn’t ending. No, as we know today, the best was yet to come.

—From Issue 7, article by Professor K