The world’s most famous shoe was brought to shelves by graphic designer, Peter Moore, turning basketball sneakers into an artform and pop culture phenomenon of the decades.
In 1984, Moore was tasked to design a sneaker to symbolize the gravity-defying skills of rookie NBA star Michael Jordan. Jordan’s celebrity status and Moore’s shoe worked in unison to reinvent global consumer culture in unprecedented fashion.
First worn by the Chicago Bulls star in 1984, the famous footwear was later released for the public to sport before the culmination of the 1985 NBA season.
“The Air Jordan transformed the industry by turning sneakers into objects of pop-culture desire,” Brendan Dunne, co-host of “The Complex Sneakers Podcast,” has said. He added that the original Air Jordan “set the standard for footwear obsession in America.”
Despite Moore having designed the Air Jordans for Nike, he spent the majority of his career as a senior executive with Adidas. He created the widely-known three-stripe mountain logo for Adidas which debuted in 1991. Tinker Hatfield took the reins for Air Jordan creative direction following Moore’s transition to other brands.
Moore passed away in April 2022—decades of his influential imagery transformed not just the shoe industry, but an entire culture of global consumerism.
A pair of Air Jordan 13 sneakers, which Michael Jordan donned during the 1998 NBA championships auctioned for $2.2 million on April 11, marking them as the most expensive kicks in history.
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