The second installment of the Tracy Mcgrady signature shoe was pretty similar to the T-Mac 1 with Torsion System and adiPrene cushioning providing ample support. Oficially they were released on November
1st, 2002 for the black/royal colourway and on December 13th, 2002 for white/royal colourway.Mcgrady already wore them on the court since the preseason of the 2002-2003 NBA Season.
For the 2003 NBA All Star Weekend Tracy McGrady debuted the new release of the shoes with the upper part made of a shiny, patent leather-like material. Adidas released them in USA colorways for the 2003 Tournament of the Americas where Tracy Mcgrady among other NBA Superstars played to qualify USA for the 2004 Summer Olympics. LeBron James had his own PE version during his last year at St. Vincent–St. Mary High School.
What could we say about the Nike Air Jordan? Surely we are talking about the most famous shoes of the history and about the greatest athlete of all-time. Nike and basketball sneakers are so popular now in a big part because of Michael Jordan and his shoes.
Lets talk something about the history of the Nike Air Jordan I. Back in 1984 Michael Jordan was drafted by the Chicago Bulls and he was ready to start his professional career. He wanted to sign a deal with Adidas because it was his favourite brand since his childhood but the german brand had a different opinion about his value and they didnt offer him a sponsorship so he ended up signing with Nike on October 10th, 1984.
As a part of his deal with Nike Michael Jordan was going to wear his own signature shoe, the Nike Air Jordan. However his signature model was not ready for the start of the 1984-85 so he wore a rare model called Nike Air Ship since the preseason. Those shoes in a black/red colourway were banned by the league because there was a rule according to that “A player must wear shoes that not only matched their uniforms, but matched the shoes worn by their teammates."
Michael Jordan was going to be fined by the league with $5000 per every game he played with the black/red sneakers but people at Nike were smart enough to see that as a big opportunity so they decided to pay the bill while convinced Jordan to wear them anyway.
Of course with all the hype around the banned shoes Nike launched a sucessful promotional campaign around the country. However instead of the Nike Air Ship that was the real banned model Nike utilized for the campaign the new Nike Air Jordan I in black/red colourway that erroneusly would past to the history and popular culture as the shoes banned by the NBA. This is one of the Nike ads from 1985.
On November 17th,1984 Michael Jordan debuted his signature shoes but in a white/red colourway matching the Chicago Bulls colours. Later that season he debuted the shoes in a white/black-red colourway popularly known as "Bred Toe" .It seems that he never played a single NBA game with the Air Jordans I in the banned colorway but after all...who cares?
The Nike Air Jordan I were oficially released in April 1st, 1985. Since then Nike had released the shoes in different colorways or heights. It was the first Nike model to be retroed in 1994. You can take a look to a very complete list here.
Those shoes were a
tuned and improved version of the Shox BB4. Released in fall 2002 at $125 the Nike Shox
Limitless improved comfort, cushioning feel, and court feel over the previous model. Many NBA players like Pau Gasol, Yao Ming, Shareff Abdur-Rahim; Lamar Odom, Tim Duncan, Elton Brand or Allan Houston wore them during the 2002-2003 NBA Season.
Originally released in 2004 those shoes were like a transition between the present and the past in terms of design and technology. They are considered one of the best basketball shoe designed by Nike.
Kobe Bryant debuted the Nike Air Zoom Huarache just a few days before the 2004 NBA All Star Game where the LA Edition make its appearance also worn by the Black Mamba and Dirk Nowitzki. During the March Madness many notables NCAA players wore them making its impact even bigger. The shoes were in the stores in March for $125 and those were one of the first model to be available to add personal messages and colorways via NIKEID.com.
Nike released many retro models since 2010 and if you add them to the personalized shoes via nikeid you can figure there are thousands of color combinations out there. In 2016 for the final All Star Game of his career Nike re-released the shoes worn by Kobe in the 2004 edition.
Released in 2003 those shoes were just one more of the large list of Nike Air Max series designed for basketball. With a large air max unit they offered great impact protection so they were worn by some of the big man of the NBA like Dirk Nowiztki or Brad Miller. In fact we could called them Dirk Nowitzki´s signature shoes because the german played with those shoes on his feet for more than a year.
The third installment of the Tracy McGrady signature shoe made its debut for the start of the 2003-2004 NBA Season but it wasnt officialy released until 2004 in white/royal or black/royal colourways.
For the 2004 NBA All Star Game T-Mac wore a pair of T-Macs 3 each one in a different colour. It was one of the last appearance of him with the shoes on the court because shortly after the All Star Weekend he began to wear the new Adidas T-Mac 3.5
In 2014 those famous blue and red mismatched TMac 3 form the All Star Game were released in a limited edition of only 200 pairs. Later that year Adidas released the retro ones with the original Orlando Magic colourways
Another iconic sneaker of the 80s. The rumorology said Magic Johnson and Larry Bird became close friends after filming the commercial for this sneaker at Bird's home. But what it's really true is that outside Michael Jordan almost all the superstars of the NBA in the second part of the 80s wore the Converse Weapon. The sneaker featured the Y-Bar Ankle Support System for strong ankle support that gave them their famous look.
However players like Bird, Magic or Isiah Thomas wore a combination of the Converse Weapon that you could buy on the stores with the sole from the older Converse Pro Leather. Not sure if it was a pre-model or they felt more comfortable the former model or maybe it was just quality control issue.
In 2009 Converse released the Converse Weapon 86, a retro version in three different colourways including the Lakers and the Celtics's ones. Later in 2014 Converse released a new remastered Converse Weapon with a few changes internally and externally to improve the confort of the sneaker plus new colorways.
