Back to the 1980s - Jordans

J is for Jordan, and what a history that sneaker has.

The Air Jordan story starts in the mid 1980s, when Nike teamed up with Michael Jordan, who was playing for the Chicago Bulls at the time. The first model hit the shelves in 1985, and from there it just kept going. New version every year, new design, same idea. Numbered in Roman numerals, which somehow made them feel even more important. Fast forward to today and we’re at forty plus. Not bad for a basketball shoe.

Over time, Jordans turned into much more than sports gear. They became a status symbol, especially in the US, and made their way into fashion, music, and street culture. Hip hop played a big role in that, and suddenly sneakers were not just something you wore for sports, but something that said who you were.

If you grew up in North America back then, chances are Jordans were high on your wish list.

Around here, not so much.

Basketball was, and still is, not exactly at the top of the Swiss sports pyramid. We were more about football (soccer), ice hockey, skiing, snowboarding. So the whole Jordan hype kind of passed us by.

What we wanted instead were Adidas Rome.

White leather, clean look, three stripes, usually blue. Simple, classic, and somehow everyone agreed they were the ones to have. There were also versions with gold stripes, which felt incredibly fancy and completely out of reach. Not only because of the price, but because my mom genuinely did not understand why anyone would need such expensive shoes. In her mind, we already had perfectly good loafers. And if it really had to be sneakers, then the regular ones from the shoe shop for half the price would do just fine.

And to be fair, she did have a point. We were growing so fast that any pair of shoes barely lasted a season before our toes were pushing at the front again. Spending that kind of money on something we would outgrow in a few months probably did seem completely unreasonable from her perspective.

Still. Moms, right? Eye roll and sigh.

Speaking of growing up, at some point Lego was no longer my go to birthday gift, so I started asking for money instead. It probably took a birthday and Christmas combined, but eventually I had saved enough to buy my own pair. Not Rome, but something that felt just as cool to me. Blue nylon, lightweight, with bright yellow stripes. Likely some version of a TRX style runner from Adidas.

I loved those shoes. They were comfortable, they looked great, and most importantly, they made me feel like I had arrived. Like I belonged.

Quick jump to today.

Now it feels like every kid has the “right” sneakers, backpacks and jeans. That battle seems to be over. Instead, the pressure has moved on to something else entirely.

I recently read in a Facebook moms group that kids as young as ten or eleven not only all have phones, but that it has to be an iPhone, and not just any iPhone. It needs to be one of the latest models. Otherwise they risk being laughed at, excluded, even bullied.

Just wow.

I guess every generation has its must haves. Still, this feels like a lot. Maybe I am getting old, but I do think this is one of those moments where moms should hold the line. After all, if all your friends are jumping off a bridge, you are not going to follow them. Right?

So tell me. Were you a proud wearer of Jordans back then?