The legend of sneaker design, Tinker Hatfield, has spoken out about his best and worst Air Jordans. When asked in the airport by TMZ, Hatfield answered with a little chuckle and no hesitation: "the 15." By the time Nike got him to design the shoe, he didn't much want to be making Jordans anymore and, as he put it, "I just don't think I brought that baby home." Although "the concept was good" and the shoe's floppy tongue was "meant to represent the way his [MJ's] tongue hangs out," Hatfield believes that "all concepts are worthless unless you follow through and execute." Unfortunately, Hatfield was too "worn out" and so now, we have the Jordan 15. His favourite is the Jordan 11, for obvious aesthetic reasons, but also for the fact that Nike "told [him] to stop," as Michael was in the middle of his brief baseball interlude, but Hatfield tracked him down and did some of his "very best work."
The industry-defining designer also gave some hints about the new LeBron sneaker. Now that he's on the Lakers, Hatfield and the people at Nike want to "leverage [LeBron's] personality" and his move to LA and "build a nice story around that," hopefully making a "groundbreaking kind of product." Hatfield ended by saying that the people at Nike are very excited by the opportunity that Lebron's move (and the fact that he's still trying to win championships) has given them to "leverage storytelling into meaningful designs that people can connect with."
