Sneaker News With the UNDEFEATED Air Jordan 4 returning to the masses on August 2nd, there’s no better time to revisit the mythology behind the iconic collaboration. As you know, UNDEFEATED’s olive/black design was strongly influenced by their military themed aesthetic, and the result was an absolute beauty. However, that wasn’t the original plan as the one and only Slim Shady changed the course of sneaker history forever.
UNDEFEATED co-founder James Bond and brand creative director Chris Gibbs recently shared in an interview with Complex that their original concept was based on the Blackberry hand-held device that was all the rage in the early 2000s era. They concocted the sample you see below, which features a sharp blue upper with white/grey accents and hits of red. As you can tell, these are nearly identical to Eminem’s Air Jordan 4, which emerged in the same year (2005).
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- UNDEFEATED x Air Jordan 4 “Blackberry” Sample mc1snkrs
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- UNDEFEATED x Air Jordan 4 “Blackberry” Sample mc1snkrs
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- UNDEFEATED x Air Jordan 4 “Blackberry” Sample mc1snkrs
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- UNDEFEATED x Air Jordan 4 “Blackberry” Sample mc1snkrs
The persistent rumor that has been circulating for some years was that Eminem saw the blue sample during his own visit to the Nike World Headquarters, fell in love with the colorway, and worked out a deal with Bond to let the famed rapper claim the colorway. “There may be some truth to that rumor,” said Cruz in the Complex interview.
With the emergence of these rare samples bia @mc1snkrs, all the dots have connected and the takeaway here is that UNDEFEATED is responsible for not one, but two of the most iconic Air Jordan collaborations in history.
The raffle for the Jordan 4 UNDEFEATED ends on July 30th at 11AM ET.
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