Air Jordan 5

Talk of firsts in shoe lines and you’ll soon find yourself talking of Air Jordan. And Jordan 5 was a master set of firsts.

For the first time in the history of Air Jordan, they had a clear outsole, one that stood out. For the first time in the history of Air Jordan, they had a reflective material on them. And for the first time, they had a molded ankle collar. A hat-trick of firsts already!

But, Air Jordan’s firsts weren’t born out of nowhere. They had a story behind them. These were designed by the same sneaker design genius, Tinker Hatfield, who designed the three releases before them. While designing them, he had an inspiration, a World War 2 Mustang fighter plane’s inspiration.

Hatfield tried to copy the plane’s design on the shoe sole by putting a starburst near the midsole, which brought colors (and of course, a new pattern) to the midsole. In this colorful veritable fighter jet was the pilot, Michael Jordan himself. And he knocked down quite a few enemy lines in them.