story

Black and Dark Smoke Grey

Air Jordan 4 Retro 'London'

We wanted to celebrate London culture and that's the first time we are actually bringing a retro exclusively for the European market.

We took a lot of trips to London speaking to people that are part of the culture and building the culture. So we had a lot of conversations about how we can respect the OG AJ4 but bring a twist to London.		

Michael Jordan came to Brixton in 1985 and he just spent time in the gym in Brixton and played a bit with kids and some other players. In London when you play basketball, it's a bit more rough in a way. And that's why it was the starting point for the story to represent the rough aesthetic and the intense way of thinking and doing stuff in London.

Nike Air is like super iconic in terms of details. That's why we also kept the 'Air' more transparent to have still the Super OG elements and with like a cheeky update with 'LDN' underneath. So we also made an update of the woven label here."			

When you play basketball on a court full of concrete like in London, you destroy your shoes, but also your ball. When your leather is destroyed, kind of this hairy leather. So that's why it was an inspiration on the shoe to have the same kind of feeling. The idea was telling the story, but still having a shoe that feels extremely premium.			

In terms of colours, we talk about the OG with a more aged effect with the past, but also the colour indeed of the bricks of the city, of the concrete. And also with the weather, kind of the light in London is a bit more dark. Small details, linked to a lot of research in terms of buildings, floors, history. Also of a basketball. It's a bit more like a darker tone. It's not orange, it's more brown.		

And for the material, we spent a lot of time to find the perfect colour because it's a 2 tone material. So it's black and grey. And I did like 50 CADs (designs). It's more like the small details. The balance with the black, the balance with the grey, the balance here and here.			

This is the first round of samples that we brought to life. The idea was really to speak about the use, the attitude of London. We did some trials about having the graphics as well, like the scratches. So this is the first round that we felt was maybe a bit too aggressive. We went into a second option that is a little bit more subtle and we tried a little bit of a cleaner approach without any scratches.		

We really wanted to offer the clean look. Just the material speaks for itself and we felt that this was the strongest option. You can scratch it yourself and then anything that comes afterwards is your story.

Behind The Design

Air Jordan 4 London