k i c k s t a r t m o n d a y s: Hello it’s the Martian...

It is December 14th and we are almost a mere week away from the re-release of one of this year’s most anticipated shoe drops. If the excerpt above from Drake’s “Forever” (featuring Yeezy, Weezy and Marshall) didn’t already make it obvious, please know that we are talking about the Air Jordan XI Space Jams.

Designed by Tinker Hatfield the original XI’s offered a Nylon upper meant to be reminiscent of a hiker’s backpack. A carbon fiber plate running through the sole was incorporated to provide rigidity and support. Performance innovations aside, the patent leather mid and toe box seemed included just to make the shoes pop. The patent however, offered a light weight alternative to genuine and tended not to stretch even in the face of quick changes in direction needed to blow past defenders.

Jordan wore the XI’s during the 1995-96 season – a record year where the Bulls posted the best regular season in NBA history (72-10) before defeating the Sonics in the finals. Jordan himself won a record fourth Finals MVP award and was also named regular season and all-star game MVP.

Air Jordan XI’s in the black, white and royal blue colourway first showed up on the big screen in the 1996 Warner Bros. movie, “Space Jam”. Michael wore the shoes to help Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tune characters win their freedom in an intergalactic basketball game against the alien Monstars. The shoes were eventually released in December 2000 under the “Space Jam” name to commemorate the film. Nine years later Jordan Brand is re-releasing the shoe with a small set of deviations from the original (see "Don't Sleep" from November 27th, 2009) along with a few extras in the box to sweeten the deal. If you put down the almost $250.00 (total – CAD) you should be thoroughly impressed with the entire package even though rumours warn that the actual shoe construction quality is somewhat below that of its predecessor.

I put my preorder in a few months ago and fear if you haven’t already done the same you may be S.O.L. The drop date has been reset many times from the original November 27th date but it looks like the fat cats at JB have finally settled on December 23rd. Thanks to Jordan Brand we have one more reason to call the last half of December the most wonderful time of the year…