Jordan 3-10

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AIR JORDAN III PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Air Jordan III (3)
Head Designer: Tinker Hatfield

1987-88 Master Lock Defensive Player of the Year. This is the season MJ won all the personal accolades an NBA player could possibly win. He was the Gatorade Slam Dunk Champ, All-Star MVP, Maurice Podoloff NBA MVP and the 1987-88 Scoring Champion. No other player in NBA history won both MVP and Defensive Player awards in the same season.

And he did this while wearing the Air Jordan 3 "designed" by Tinker Hatfield. They were Tinker's first Air Jordan shoes in what is to be many. Tough to find the originals these days. Peter Moore, Nike's head designer, originally did the preliminary design work on the AJ 3. He had a pile of sketches of the Air Jordan 3 but waited until it was too late to execute. When he left, Tinker got the sketches and in amongst it were the outline of the Air Jordan Jumpman logo.

Back in 1988, MJ's contract with Nike was about to finish. Rob Strasser Nike's VP was in a power struggle with Phil Knight, Nike's CEO. Rob and Peter were secretly hatching a plan to lure Jordan away from Nike to their new sneaker company called Van Grack (Driven from Within, pg 89).

Since 1985, Nike sales have jumped through the roof and Phil Knight (Nike's CEO) was not about to lose Jordan that easily. He gave Tinker the task of presenting the next AJ 3 to Michael. Both Tinker and Ron Dumas designed the entire AJ 3 line in a matter of a few weeks.

Back in California, Jordan was 4 hours late to the AJ 3 presentation that were attended by Delores Jordan, James Jordan and Phil Knight. MJ's parents were very annoyed by his lateness. Phil Knight was acting like it was cool. Apparently MJ was late because he was playing golf with Rob Strasser and Peter Moore. They were discussing about the new sneaker company. At the AJ 3 presentation, Michael was in a bad mood but when Tinker said that he has a sample pair of the AJ 3, Michael's eyes lit up. When MJ held the shoes in his hands, his bad attitude was gone and he started talking excitedly.

Designed to be more of a mid-top (3/4 cut) instead of a low-top. The air unit is now visible through a sidehole in the shoes, a real gimmick back then to be able to see the much vaunted Air Sole cushioning system. The JUMPMAN logo replaces the OLD AIR JORDAN logo. The unique elephant print trim around the shoe sets it apart from the others eg. Converse and Adidas. Tumbled leather uppers give the uppers a soft luxurious look. A very solid looking pair of shoes in real-life, just like the man... Spike Lee's MARS BLACKMON ads for Jordan 3's were funny and out-of-this world. Combined with Jordan's stellar on-court performance in the NBA, it made both Jordan and Air Jordan's very famous in the USA and Japan consumer markets.

The AJ 3 had the three plastic lace loops which also featured in other Nikes such as the Nike Air Delta Force and Nike Air Force II that were released earlier in 1987 when Jordan was injured. The "elephant print" around the toebox and heel counter was something unusual for the AJ 3. So is the outsole design. It was cutting-edge and modern back in 88. Sharp angles, clean lines and with plenty of consideration towards performance and grip. Back in those days, people would freak out paying $100 for sneakers. AJ 3 turned that preconception around and made paying triple figures for sneakers a viable proposition. One thing is for sure, I wouldn't wanna be walking around the "projects/ghettos" or downtown with these back in the 80's because one would get mugged or killed by drug-crazed gangsta' hoods. Suffice to say, AJ 3 were hot back then and they are still hot now...