Air Jordan V retro OG - Nike Air - Fire Red/Silver tongue - May 2, 2020

Why would they only make Grapes have a portion of leather and Durabuck and make production harder on themselves by making all the similar white uppered colorways different? Isn't it more likely and logical the others were also made with a combination?

no the reason is that Durabuck was lighter and more expensive than leather. the original shoes designed by Tinker were intended and designed using Durabuck and were intended for mj to play in so the designs had intentional performance reasons within the designs that included Durabuck. the grapes and other 6's were not intended for mj to actually play in they were basically early lifestyle shoes so they incorporated mixed materials. All the shoes that were colorways he played in were full Durabuck including Carmine 6's
 
I can email Tinker and confirm if you would like to hear it from him. but I have honestly have had a similar discussion with him last year about this. MJ preferred Durabuck and Nike gave us the same shoes MJ actually wore despite people thinking his were different they weren't unless it was an injury specific design.
 
I can email Tinker and confirm if you would like to hear it from him. but I have honestly have had a similar discussion with him last year about this. MJ preferred Durabuck and Nike gave us the same shoes MJ actually wore despite people thinking his were different they weren't unless it was an injury specific design.

Were talking production models not PEs which varies widely from the released versions. From the aging and feel of the OGs it looks like they went with a combination of both on the retail pairs. Also yeah I have Tinkers number too tell him ByRon is curious to know too ;)

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im pretty sure the grapes were part leather part Durabuck. all the others that MJ wore in games were all Durabuck. his game-worn shoes were normally durabuck from 4's to the 7's. the 6's that he wore on court colorways were Durabuck the others ie maroons and sport blues were leather.

So you know what exact materials were on the pairs MJ himself wore? OG White infrared 6s were leather too.
 
It just gets better and better lol. I’m also waiting on the “throw your whole pair of Jordan’s in the wash machine because this white leather is actually cloth” instructions.
 
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Were talking production models not PEs which varies widely from the released versions. From the aging and feel of the OGs it looks like they went with a combination of both on the retail pairs. Also yeah I have Tinkers number too tell him ByRon is curious to know too :wink:

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Would love to collaborate with Jordan on a Jordan 6. Think you could put in a good word👀
 
I'll NEVER forget when these hit the outlets for 20 bucks the summer of 2000, I wanted to flex in summer school lol , biggest size the Lancaster outlet had was a 9, I had to settle for the Navy n white flight 89's...
 
Ok so after a word with Tinker it looks like the only difference in PEs and production shoes were slight padding differences in the ankle areas that’s it nothing else including materials were changed from retail pairs. Most of you I’m sure never owned original pairs because if you have we would not be having this discussion about various materials being used. If you have held originals it’s extremely obvious what pairs were full Durabuck and which pairs were leather.
 
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This is a pic of my dads old OG black tongues.. the heal and ankle are clearly the same material.. the material is also very porous looking if you zoom in on it.. none of my shoes in my collection have this kind of porous looking material.
 
Ya and it’s beyond easy. These will hold me over until we do get a Grape Nike Air with lace holes retro. When they’re on feet no one knows.
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It's more the principal of it. I'm not spending resell now on a pair of shoes that I know will drop a few years down with the correct adjustments and that will cause me to basically dump this current shoe for that. Same reason why I passed on free throw line 3s.
 
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