Breaking news from the 2015 Air Jordan Retro Roundtable (which is a thing, apparently): the Air Jordan III, the first signature Jordan designed by the legendary Tinker Hatfield, is being discontinued:
“The Air Jordan 3 is going back in the vault. The last color just dropped,” said Schechter.
Oh, really? The last color just dropped? Bullllllll-shit! You don’t permanently end production on one of the most popular shoes of all time. It just doesn’t happen. In fact, while the above quote from David Schechter, Vice President of Footwear for Jordan Brand, sounds final, it’s really not:
We’re not sure how long the model will be shelved, but Schechter added that Jordan Brand needed to “reset” Tinker Hatfield’s first Air Jordan, and that when the shoe does come back, it will be fully remastered.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how you create hype. It’s not a matter of “if”, it’s a matter of “when”. It’s like the Disney Vault. Inform the masses that something is going away for good, clear the market, then come back in four or five years with a “new” version of the same thing, appealing to old and new fans alike. Because lord knows there are way too many sucker hype beasts willing to fork over money for shit-quality retros to call it quits for good.
