In 1984, the Chicago Bulls drafted an upcoming superstar named Michael Jordan with the 3rd overall pick. While being courted by several sneaker brands, Jordan eventually landed with Nike and signed his contract on the first day of the NBA regular season which was October 26, 1984. Prior to this, he had been wearing Nike shoes during the preseason. Although, the colors he wore at this time did not adhere to the "uniformity of uniforms" rule the NBA had in place. According to the NBA, footwear had to be primarily white based. The shoes Jordan wore were predominantly red and black. Because the rules were broken, they were essentially "banned" by the NBA. The name of the shoes were called the Nike Air Ship.

There are very few pictures and videos of Jordan wearing the red & black colorway. Coincidently however, Nike had started a campaign boasting about the newest Air Jordan. Michael's first signature sneaker. Even some thirty years later, there continues to be confusion about the sneaker that was actually "banned" between the Nike Air Ship and the Air Jordan 1. After the supposed "ban" by the NBA, Michael had switched to a white and red based Nike Air Ship before officially debuting the Air Jordan on November 17, 1985. Theoretically, the newest Air Jordan was still in production and had not released until March 1985.

A few years ago I wrote an article on Sole Collector about the Nike Air Ship. The story took off and has been shared by many media platforms. The Nike Air Ship has never retroed and this is a petition for Nike produce them. To tell the story of the shoes before the Air Jordan worn by the greatest basketball player ever.