story

"The inspiration around the A Ma Maniére 3 was actually rooted in my first experience with Jordan Brand. The 3 was the first shoe that my Mum ever brought me so it was interesting to have the opportunity to be able to tell a story about her"

"on the AJ 3. Growing up where I grew up, it wasn't like we got one shoe every week. This was my shoe for the year. So this was like so nostalgic. Even the significance that MJ himself holds, not just for me, but for everybody who has"

"grown up in the struggle, he's a superhero for us. So like to be able to work on a 3 and what it represents, that's crazy. The AJ 3 is a classic so what can we do to make it lean a little more towards luxury? One of my personal"

"favourite materials is this luxurious nappy suede so I think it was a no-brainer for us to just get rid of the elephant print and move in the nappy suede. The part about it that my Mum influenced was, growing up there were always these things she always said to us even when we"

"fought. It's actually in her handwriting on the back of the heel tabs. One is "all we have is each other", just meaning that we come from a small projects and I grew up with two brothers. All we had was each other. The second you walked out of those projects"

"alone, whether it be for school or to go play basketball or to go to another place, you had to be very comfortable being alone and being able to stand by yourself and understand that like yo you've been raised a certain way and now you've got to stand"

"stand on what you believe and how you came up. You've gotta be very comfortable in it. The two statements kind of contradict each other, but they're two statements that my Mum said to me so it's a discovery moment, but it's super important to me to tell our story. The people in"

"Jordan Brand believed in the idea that it is time for the A Ma Maniére monogram to exist. As a luxury retailer that's evolving into a luxury brand, it was very important for us to have our logo on the tongue. It's saying to the world"

"that, 'Hey we're here. We have a point of view and youth culture, Black culture is getting a chance to give our perspective on what luxury means for us and for our culture in the future'. The other important"

"detail was the quilting in the lining. It's the things that only the wearer sees. It's the soft, subtle, small details right. Shout out to Izzy because he was obsessed with the idea of this raw leather edge. Then the lace tips"

"our mantra that we live by is "Work Harder". If you ever think you've done it or you ever think you've arrived, you haven't. For everything good that is happening, for me even with this moment and this shoe and our company and our team,"

"there are still bad things that are happening in the world and in our community. So we can celebrate this one moment, but behind this moment are so many other things that we have to continue to work at for and work for. Youth culture in the Black community has helped define the direction"

"of luxury. So for us it was like OK we need to step into who we are. I'm a projects kid who was always into the idea of luxury, right, that's why A Ma Maniére exists. So really it's about the experiences, but connecting back to the community and culture"

"and being a North Star for the community that I'm from, but also pushing boundaries of what luxury means. When we start looking at the monogram shorts and a lot of the nylon pieces, the idea was to have subtle hints"

"and subtle logo hits and to let it be as clean and luxurious as it could possibly be while mixing a balanced colour palette together. It's about melting and melding what"

"streetwear is and what luxury is. The "A" being on the tongue, even now, is the moment where you're like, this is us."

Behind the Design: A Ma Maniére Collection