Jordan Brand has released yet another interesting conceptualization of the Air Jordan I. This time around, the shoes pay homage to Jordan’s not so storied career as a minor league outfielder. The release comes in a white home and black away colorway. As a nice change of pace, the two sneakers are available individually instead of being packaged together like many other prominent retro Jordan releases lately.

There’s some interesting details on this release. The most notable being the crossed bats with a BB for the Birmingham Barons, the AA White Sox affiliate Jordan played for during the year long stint. The 3 and 51 represent his home run and RBI totals respectively. Say what you will about his output and the level of competition, but how many RBIs do you have in your minor league career?

The pinstriping and baseball stitching around the toe and swoosh really complete a pretty nice package. I’d much prefer to see these relevant conceptual Jordan releases than essentially random colorways thrown together with a bunch of tacky apparel. Which reminds me that there is a matching tee, resembling a baseball jersey. If you’re into creating a complete outfit around your Jordans, this shirt might actually be worth your money.

Surprisingly the black colorway seems to be the more popular of the pair. I tend to think the white pair shows off the details of the shoe more prominently and is a perfect shoe heading into spring. That said, the black pair is executed really well and both will certainly be hits with collectors.

The clear swoosh is an interesting twist. Hopefully yellowing won’t be much of an issue, but I wouldn’t hold my breath there. I have to say I am a tiny bit surprised this idea wasn’t implements on a pair of IX’s, which Jordan wore in a cleated version during his time as a Baron. Maybe something like this is in the works though, who knows with Jordan these days.

Both of these sneakers have released to Jordan accounts this weekend, just in time for opening day for most Major League Baseball teams this coming week. They are also available on nike.com, but are selling fast so place that order or call your local shop before it’s too late.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 3:26 pm and is filed under Shoes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.