1988 Air Jordan III

by Drew Hammell

Just how critical was the Air Jordan III to Nike’s legacy? So critical that it’s known as “the shoe that saved the brand.” The honeymoon phase between Nike, Michael Jordan, and everyone else involved came to an end after Jordan injured his foot very early in his second season in the league. Adding to that was the fact that the Air Jordan II design was nowhere near the hit that the Air Jordan 1 had been. Peter Moore, who designed the first two models, left Nike in 1987.

Then Nike’s VP of marketing, Rob Strasser, left as well. The two of them ended up collaborating on their own new sneaker brand, Van Grack. With these two key figures gone, the production timeline for the Air Jordan III slowed down significantly. To make matters worse, Jordan’s first contract with Nike was coming up for renewal. Moore and Strasser still had a good relationship with Jordan, and there were no stipulations forbidding the two from speaking to him about switching over to Van Grack and starting his own line.

Fortunately, Nike had a pool of talented designers who were perfectly capable of creating the next Air Jordan model while the company hammered out details of the contract renewal. The designer who rose to the occasion was former University of Oregon pole-vaulter and architecture major Tinker Hatfield. Hatfield happened to be in the right place at the right time. He was on a roll after designing the Air Max running shoe, the Air Trainer 1, and the Nike Mag, which was featured in the hit film Back to the Future Part II. These three sneakers were revolutionary for Nike, and that opened the door for Hatfield to work on the Air Jordan III. “It was six months behind schedule by the time [the Air Jordan III project] was given to me,” Hatfield recalled in the 2017 documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design. “So it had to be another hurry up, no sleep for weeks and months, traveling back and forth to Asia with all the developers and getting a prototype in.”

It turned out Hatfield was the perfect designer for the task, as he genuinely wanted Jordan’s feedback on the sneaker. Hatfield was so good at interpreting critiques from Jordan and other athletes in part because of his college track-and-field coach: Nike cofounder Bill Bowerman. Like Bowerman, Hatfield was fascinated by the athlete’s foot and how it moved. When Hatfield met with Jordan about his next model, he wanted to know what he was looking for. Jordan ideally wanted a mid-cut shoe instead of the typical high-cut sneaker players were wearing at the time. He wanted a shoe that was comfortable, one already broken in, with soft, supple leather. He also liked shoes that were flashy but sophisticated. Hatfield absorbed all that information, and he was ready come presentation time.

Hatfield, Phil Knight, and several other Nike execs flew to California to meet with Jordan and his parents for the big AJ III presentation. MJ was four hours late for the meeting because he was out on the golf course with Nike competitors Strasser and Moore. The two were pitching the idea of Jordan leaving Nike to create an even greater legacy on his own with their new brand. Apparently they did a good job, because by the time Jordan showed up for the Nike meeting, he was in a bad mood and didn’t plan on staying long.

Knight handed the meeting off to Hatfield, who began asking Jordan if he remembered the conversation they’d had months earlier about the kind of sneaker he was looking for. Jordan did and began to soften up as they continued talking about his ideal shoe. Hatfield eventually pulled away a shroud from the Air Jordan III prototype, and Jordan fell in love. It was exactly what he was looking for. There was sleekness, there was a new lower-cut height, there was soft, supple leather. There were things Jordan hadn’t seen before, like the exotic elephant print and his own logo right on the tongue. Hatfield designed that Jumpman logo, inspired by the famous image of Jordan leaping into the air, and he displayed it on the tongue to ensure everyone knew Jordan was the face of the brand. After the meeting, it was over for Strasser and Moore: MJ was staying with Nike.

Few would dispute that the Air Jordan III is one of the line’s most elegant designs and popular models, and that it set a new standard for style and technology. The silhouette was both advanced and sophisticated (and the $100 price tag in 1988 proved it). Its aesthetics—including the “Nike Air” logo on the heel and the absence of an oversize Swoosh on the side, along with its colorways—were eye-grabbing. And like its predecessor, the Air Jordan II, the Air Jordan III was the real deal, both in style and performance. But unlike the previous model, it was the hit Nike needed to propel it, and Jordan, to the next level.

One of the fondest collective memories of Jordan in the AJ III comes from the 1988 NBA All-Star Game in Chicago. While that wasn’t the first time he’d worn it—he’d been seen in the “White/Cement” model in several games in November ’87—it’s a major part of the model’s lore. The most important moment of the weekend arrived in the Slam Dunk Contest, which he won for the second-straight time with his signature foul-line dunk. In the All-Star Game itself, Jordan wore the “Black/Cement” colorway in front of 18,403 fans. He wowed the crowd and poured in 40 points, along with 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals. That would be the only time all season Jordan wore the black colorway in a game.

That weekend couldn’t have gone much better for Jordan and Nike. MJ took home All-Star MVP honors, and on his feet was the Air Jordan III. The fact that Jordan rocked both new colorways was ample marketing in and of itself, but Nike bolstered it even further by premiering Air Jordan III commercials during the second half of the All-Star Game. The commercials featured Jordan alongside a young Spike Lee, aka Mars Blackmon (Lee’s character from his film She’s Gotta Have It). The nerdy, loudmouthed sneakerhead sidekick to Jordan went on to costar in four straight Air Jordan ad campaigns. Nike also bought a two-page ad in the 1988 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue that featured Jordan and Blackmon. Those ads, which were produced by the marketing agency Wieden+Kennedy, immortalized catchphrases like “It’s gotta be the shoes” and one of Jordan’s nicknames, “Money.”

“Loved it,” Lee said of the Jordan III. “I mean, I loved Jordans from the beginning. That’s why Mars wore them in She’s Gotta Have It. That wasn’t product placement. Mars wore Jordans because that shit was hot.”

Officially, the “White/Cement” and “Black/Cement” Air Jordan IIIs released in January 1988 for $100. Jordan rocked the white/cement model for the rest of the 1987–88 season before switching to the “Fire Red” colorway for the ’88 Playoffs and also to begin the 1988–89 campaign. There was also a fourth OG colorway—nicknamed “True Blue”—which Jordan didn’t wear on an NBA court in the ’80s. He did, however, wear them during an exhibition game versus Team USA in 1988. He also sported a special PE version that featured a few tweaks in 2001 during his time with the Washington Wizards.

Over the past few decades, it’s been tough to keep up with the amount of Air Jordan III retros to come out. By far, the “White/Cement” and “Black/Cement” colorways have been the most popular retro releases over the years, returning for the first time in 1994. Both the OG “True Blue” and “Fire Red” colors have retroed as well.

In 2010, Jordan Brand released a special “Doernbecher” version of the AJ III designed by Cole Johanson, a patient of the children’s hospital for which the shoe was named. Along with a red tonal upper, it included plenty of special touches like Johanson’s favorite foods (spaghetti and chocolate) written behind the heel tabs, and “Strength” and “Courage” written on the insoles. Like all Doernbecher sneakers, this silhouette was extremely limited, and demand for it was high. Jordan released the model again in 2013, but canceled orders due to a high purchase rate by bots.

The following year, former Oregon Ducks football player Jason Williams partnered with Hatfield, an alumnus of the University of Oregon, to design a Ducks-inspired AJ III. The sneaker was nicknamed the “Pit Crew,” a nod to the crazed 1,500 fans who scream in the student section at home games. The Oregon “O” was stitched onto the tongue, while webbed duck feet appeared on the heel. A similar Hatfield PE design came in 2018 in very limited numbers; the shoe featured a nearly all-green upper and a Swoosh inspired by Hatfield’s earliest designs of the AJ III. The pairs, which are extremely rare and very valuable, set a new standard for college-affiliated retro creations from Jordan Brand.

Jordan Brand has continued to release both new colorways and OGs over the past few years, including the “Black/Cement” in 2018 with the original “Nike Air” branding on the heel, again demonstrating its commitment to collectors. After the slight dip in popularity brought on by the Air Jordan II, and the shaky handoff from head designer Moore to the young Hatfield, the Jordan line took off with the help of the AJ III. Hatfield went on to design one hit after another for Jordan over the next ten years. The Air Jordan III was the first to feature the Jumpman logo, as well as the first Jordan with a visible Air window. The sneaker helped MJ earn his first MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards, etching it into the mind of every sneakerhead. Unlike today’s players, Jordan primarily wore one colorway for the majority of the season. Everyone knew what he’d be wearing each night, and all eyes were glued to his feet. It was a genius design by a brilliant designer, and the beginning of the greatest designer-athlete partnership in the history of sports.

Honorable Mention
New Balance 576

by Matt Welty

New Balance owes much of its notoriety, and profits, to the 574 sneaker. For a lot of people, it’s the first sneaker they owned from the brand. But the 574 owes its whole existence to the 576.

The 576 was a top-tier New Balance running shoe, built for performance, when it was released in 1988. It had multiple layers of sole absorption, a heel cap, and a suede and mesh upper. Designed by Steven Smith, the sneaker falls neatly in line in his New Balance history, behind the 997, 1500, and 995. It’s a shoe that’s remained a favorite among connoisseurs, often as a part of the brand’s Made in the USA production line, other times manufactured at its Flimby factory in England, and frequently the basis of memorable collaborations with European retailers like Hanon and Solebox over the years.

Popular versions of the shoe include Solebox’s “Purple Devil” and Hanon’s “Northern Soul” series, which commemorates the popular music genre in the UK. London’s Footpatrol has remixed the 576, a version that saw a ten-year rerelease. UK footwear maker Grenson put brogueing on the shoe and gave it a menswear touch. The shoe has taken on bright suedes and mismatched materials, but some argue that it looks best in its original gray and navy.

By contrast, the 574 was, until recently, seen as the New Balance shoe that hard-core fans of the brand like to forget—the mainstream moneymaker collectors didn’t want in their rotation. And for good reason. The brand bastardized the shoe. Foot Locker notoriously sold the sneaker via two-for-$89 deals in the 2000s. It was viewed as a discount model from a company that prided itself on quality and craftsmanship. Everything the 576 was, the 574 was not.

The irony of the differences between the two shoes, many of which go unnoticed by the average consumer, is that Smith is often credited with creating the 574, despite having been more accurately responsible for its premium older sibling. His explanation in the past was that the 574 was something of a watered-down version of the 576, a shoddy Frankenstein stripped of its premium pieces and produced by someone else at New Balance. Yes, the 574 has been loads more popular over the years, but those in the know agree that the 576 is the model of that ilk truly deserving of the spotlight. It’s the sneaker that’s everything the 574 has ever wanted to be.