So I have an acquaintance who is a sneaker head, and they spend wayyyy too much money on shoes. For most sneaker heads, the Nike Air Jordan 1 is the ultimate pa

So I have an acquaintance who is a sneaker head, and they spend wayyyy too much money on shoes. For most sneaker heads, the Nike Air Jordan 1 is the ultimate pair to acquire. Old ones, new releases, they all sell for exorbitant amounts, and the games necessary to acquire them are legion. Or you can just go on StockX and pay the going rate. So the other day he sends me a pic of a pair of AJ1s that are the "banned" originals that the NBA told Jordan not to wear. They were in mint shape, and that's unusual in kicks because the glue binding the soles to the leather usually breaks down. Any foam padding usually breaks down too, so a pair from 1985 would look like crap. Yet these looked perfect. Now Nike re-releases AJ1s all the time. But they're not the same as the original, for a variety of reasons I won't get into. And people want the original style, or as close as possible to it. Turns out there's quite a few people crafting "new" AJ1s that look identical to the 1985 AJ1s. You can even buy them with authentic soles. These shoes are handcrafted with really well dyed leather, the correct stitching etc. They get the soles from buying beater kicks on eBay etc, or you can even send in your old shoes to have the soles re-used. I owned an original pair of AJ1s (not the banned version) from 1985, and there was only one detail that was overlooked. My friend didn't care, but it annoyed me that they had missed the detail. And then he told me how much the hand-crafted versions were selling for.... $800. This was back in the first part of the year, and now the prices are like $1250. The same companies will create bespoke editions for you, typically starting at $5K a pair.