SOLE COLLECTOR: Sneakers

SPACE

SPACE
Key Tech: Blow-molded Air (heel), Zoom Air (forefoot), full-length inner-bootie construction, carbon fiber midfoot support shank

Use: Hoops, Indoor

Position: All

Colorway Tested: White/College Blue/Black

Price: $200

Pros: Exceptional fit; very good cushioning with a highly stable feel; tons of support around the ankle and heel; very good traction; suitable for players at any position (but take note of the related caveat in the “Cons” list below); beautiful material and manufacturing quality; may be the most durable Jordan ever

Cons: Midsole feels like cardboard under the ball of the foot and starts out rock-hard under the heel; seemingly nonexistent cushioning up front; rough inner becomes increasingly uncomfortable with wear; allows a lot of side-to-side movement within the inner at the forefoot; overly restrictive around the ankle

SPACE

PACE

WHAT PRICE GLORY?

IN SHORT, NO. UNLESS THEY COME FROM NASA and involve teleportation to another dimension, no shoe is worth a pair of Benjamins-especially not a shoe meant to be pulled, flexed, stretched, sweated in, stepped on and otherwise beat up as is inevitable over the course of a hard fought game of hoops.

The Air Jordan XVII is no exception to this rule. As lustrous as its materials, as beautiful as its construction and as fancy as its metallic case may be, it’s not worth the coin. That does not, however, mean that it’s not an excellent shoe, because it in many ways is.

Perhaps most impressive is the XVII’s level of fit and support around the entire rearfoot. It puts your heel in absolute lockdown and provides form-fitting support from the base of its footbed all the way up to the very top of its densely padded, Lycra-lined ankle collar. If anything, I think some-particularly the quick, agile guards and forwards of the world-will feel that the XVII overdoes it here. The combination of a rigid externalized support bar wrapping around the base of the heel and a super stiff internalized heel counter provides a ton of support and protection, but also imparts a somewhat blocky feel.

And this seesawing refrain applies to pretty much the whole of the shoe. Fit and support under, over and around the midfoot are excellent, but may feel overly restrictive and confining to some. Impact protection under both the forefoot and heel is excellent, but the midsole may feel too thick and firm for those who like to run and gun.

What it boils down to is that the Air Jordan XVII feels like a shoe-a wonderfully supportive, wonderfully protective shoe, but a shoe nonetheless. If that sounds good to you, then you’ll love the XVII because it is one of the best of its ilk ever made (it really is). But if your definition of a great shoe is a collection of rubber, foam, leather and mesh that comes alive as though it were an extension of your own muscles, bones, tendons and flesh, the XVII is not for you.

I think that overriding “shoeness” comes from the fact that the XVII was designed to provide max-protection for the third-comeback Jordan-that sometimes rickety, sometimes resplendent, but oftentimes earth-bound player who the inimitable John Thompson re-dubbed “Floor Jordan.” And there is no doubt that Jordan did indeed play a different game during his final return to the league. Gone were the high-flying acrobatics, replaced instead with mid-range jumpers and that still sweet fadeaway. Basically, MJ had become more of a forward than a shooting guard, and that’s the player for whom the Air Jordan XVII was designed-not the Jordan we remembered, but the Jordan who was.

And maybe that’s what bothers me about the shoe. There’s an air of resignation in its over-protectiveness-as though it’s meant not so much to enable great things, but rather to prevent bad things. That may have been what the Michael Jordan of the 2001-02 season needed, but it’s fundamentally at odds with what the Air Jordan line has always been about.

Now, I don’t want to make it sound as though the XVII is a bad shoe because, as I’ve already noted, it provides exceptionally good overall protection, is beautifully designed and, on the whole, displays meticulous craftsmanship. It may also be the most durable Air Jordan ever made (it would, at the very least, give the XII a run for its money in the toughness department). But, for me at least, all of those things taken together can’t make up for one thing the XVII lacks within the core of its being: the spirit of the possible. This isn’t something that’s expressed in a line, or a particular material or a newfangled technology, it’s the sum of all of a shoe’s many parts and how they interact with you. The best of the Jordans-the III, the V, the XI and, I believe, the XX-have it, which explains why otherwise rational people like me not only want, but need to spend absolutely irrational amounts of money to buy them.

What the folks at Jordan seem to have forgotten while planning the XVII’s release is that price does not bestow greatness. Rather, it’s greatness that begets the willingness to pay a great price. The Air Jordan XVII, while a nice and in some facets excellent shoe, is not great and, in my view, fails to live up to the expectations set by its vainglorious price.

—From Issue 7, article by Professor K