As part of their recent World Basketball Festival launch, Jordan Brand unveiled a quartet of fresh footwear looks which will form their ‘For The Love Of The Game' pack. Featuring the Air Jordan 2010 Outdoor, the Jordan Pre-Game XT and the Air Jordan IX Retro, as well as the Air Jordan Alpha I Outdoor, this University Blue themed collection has every corner covered – retro, outdoors, style and Jordan himself.
The Air Jordan 2010 Outdoor has been designed from the ground-up for rugged blacktop play and its Uni-Blue colourway is symbolic of Michael Jordan's personal motto on which the pack is based. The AJ 2010 Outdoor also features a fitting six-row stitch pattern across the forefoot to commemorate his six chips. Designed under Nike's Considered Design ethos, this kick comes complete with a top loaded forefoot Zoom Air unit and heel Air-Sole unit for impact protection, as well as a contoured Phylon midsole, solid rubber herringbone outsole, internal shank plate and molded foam collar.
The Jordan Pre-Game XT on the other hand is a 'revolutionary' basketball training shoe that has been conceived to help athletes become more agile during footwork-focused drills. The Pre-Game XT features a mesh vamp, sculpted Phylon midsole and multi-directional herringbone inspired outsole. Looks dope to us!
The Air Jordan IX Retro is apparently inspired by Japanese culture. It has Air-Sole units in the forefoot and heel, a rubber outsole with outrigger, innersleeve and a lightweight polyurethane midsole. Likewise, the Air Jordan Alpha I Outdoor is a revamped version of the sneaker that started it all. Featuring a full-length Zoom Air unit, Phylon midsole, lightweight durable synthetic materials and enhanced interior comfort lining, this Alpha 1 joins its JB brethren for one fitting 25th Anniversary footwear celebration.
Bon appetit Jordan lovers!
During the recent Jordan Brand product launch at the World Basketball Festival media announcement, JB Creative Director Mark Smith had this to say about the Air Jordan 2010 Outdoor...
The shoes and products are also a window into some of the stuff you'll be seeing in the future from Jordan brand - kind of bold, iconic, moment driven and deep story telling. Michael's involved throughout the entire process of designing any of the game shoes and much of the footwear, apparel and rest of the line. But this one in particular, the AJ 2010 Outdoor, we keep going back and forth with them when we did samples and started showing him things along the way. Obviously making sure performance was key to the product and then secondary was being able to tell the story in a number of ways. I think back to basics was key to making just a great, great basketball shoe that we wanted to see on court.
In Carolina when he actually ascended to being on the scene, we thought colour was so significant to this moment for him as in ascended into who he was and who he was going to be, we decided to just tag the colour on everything for the festival. It's actually a brand relevant story for us, brand relevant color and obviously around the man himself. Putting the heart and basketball together kind of significant story telling device. Even on the inside there's the script, "For the Love of the Game." It all combines to give a shout out to why we're out there playing basketball.
We picked a great partner in getting this product on court, I think the best way you do that is putting an athlete in the product who can authenticate it in performance. Dwyane Wade was the perfect athlete at the perfect time.
We really wanted to make this shoe a product that our players are out there playing basketball all year long, but this time in the summer you're out there playing you're taking an extra beating and wanted it to fit the way the Game shoe did on the indoor court actually on the outdoor court, but also just make sure it was appropriate for the outdoor player.
We really took the 2010 outsole and first thing on the ground we just made it a little bit more durable for the outdoor game. It's bottom loaded zoom. It's a very simple outdoor platform. It's got a little bit thicker rubber for durability and obviously the flexibility and torsion is right there. We added toe protection as well, for a little bit more out there game. Free floating flex cover in the forefoot, again just for durability. The straps we kind of went back into the archives and we kind of brought that back in more of a modern way. Very simple dynamic, not a lot of tricks on this one. We just wanted to keep it basic. Very breathable, a lot of perfs on the outside. Fit unit around the collar, back to how things fit against your feet. Great sock liner. Overall just a nice durable version of the 2010 Game shoe. The outdoor game gives you an opportunity to play rougher and I think we addressed that here in this product.
In the summer of 2010 New York is going to become the home and heart of basketball and we wanted to use that as a great, great opportunity to highlight some of best products for some of our best athletes out there. The best athletes being everyday heroes out there on the courts, beating up these products, beating them up in our products. Using a great color device, a great statement from MJ to tie it all together. I think the University Blue is going to be a great color to see, and any time you see it out on the courts you're going to know it's performance, it's going to be Jordan and it's for the real reason kids are out there playing, because they love the game.
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