Anime and Jordans … who would’ve thought, right?
It’s no surprise to anyone how valuable and historic Michael Jordan and his sneakers are … assuming we all binge watched “The Last Dance.” We may not know exactly when the sneakerhead phenomenon started but what we can tell you is that in the early ’90s, “Slam Dunk” was already in the game.
“Slam Dunk” is arguably one of the most iconic Japanese sports animes ever created. The manga was first introduced in 1990 and its anime series came shortly after in 1993. The basketball anime is about a gang leader, Hanamichi Sakuragi, who is introduced to basketball through a girl he falls in love with — Haruko Akagi. He ends up joining the Shohoku High School basketball team and the team starts to gain public attention as they try to become top contenders in Japan.
In one of the episodes, there is a scene that shows a glimpse of a hypebeast’s mentality. The shoe store manager denies selling a pair of Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG Black and Red a.k.a Air Jordan 1 Bred (abbreviated from Black and Red) to a shoe collector that has no intention on wearing. The manager ends up selling them for extremely cheap to Sakuragi solely based on the fact that he would actually wear them with pride.
In today’s sneakerhead community, we see this exact thing happen every day. Sneakerheads are buying trendy or hype sneakers with the intention of not wearing them at all. Their sole purpose in buying is to flex or resell for profit. We actually saw this transpire after Kobe Bryant’s death. The market value went up on Lakers/Kobe gear after his passing — sneakerheads and hypebeasts started searching for their vintage gear to try and profit off of it.
Also … who else is wondering what Michael Jordan is thinking about this announcer’s comments on his shoes???
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