{"id":1287,"date":"2018-06-12T17:37:15","date_gmt":"2018-06-12T17:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/?p=1287"},"modified":"2018-06-12T17:37:15","modified_gmt":"2018-06-12T17:37:15","slug":"what-are-those","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/2018\/06\/12\/what-are-those\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT ARE THOSE?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“WHAT ARE THOSE?” THE LOOP’S AL KESHVANI DROPS SNEAKER SCIENCE<\/em><\/h3>\n

BY CHRIS TIESSEN<\/em><\/p>\n

I saw my first pair of Jordans back in 1989. I was eleven years old and one of my best friends, Mike Gardner, bought a pair of Jordan 4s for basketball season. He showed them to me at practice. White with grey and baby blue highlights. To celebrate Jordan\u2019s collegiate career at North Carolina. I saw my second pair of Jordans that same day. My brother\u2019s best friend, Matt Rooney, had himself a pair of 4s for the season too. He showed them to me later that evening at my house. White with black and red. Chicago Bulls colours. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I fell in love twice that day. And have been in love ever since. <\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t grab a pair of Jordans for myself, though, until nineteen years later when, as a grad student, I found myself giving a paper at the Newberry Library (on seventeenth-century book culture, no less) in Chicago. Alone in the Windy City in the middle of February, I wandered downtown to Nike Town after my presentation. My mission: Jordans. Whichever model. As I approached the multi-storey store \u2013 \u2018the house that Jordan built\u2019 \u2013 I noticed a gaggle of tents lined up from the Nike Town main entrance all the way down the block. Folks were literally camped out. In the middle of winter. In Chicago. When I asked a guy perched in the entrance of his tent what was up, he answered concisely: \u2018Jordan 23s are releasing tomorrow. We\u2019re in line.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As I wandered past him and into the store, and headed upstairs to the dedicated Jordan floor, and grabbed a pair of Jordan 22s, and headed back downstairs and outside into the frigid cold of February in Chicago, and looked toward the groupings of people shivering in their tents, I couldn\u2019t help but marvel at what I\u2019d just experienced. Sneaker culture. In full effect. And I gripped my shoebox a little tighter and hustled through the snow back to my hotel. Happy as a lark.
\nI still have my 22s. I\u2019ve never owned 23s. But I still crave 4s. And I still marvel at the sneaker culture phenomenon. A passion that, for local sneaker heads, at least, is satiated at a sweet little shop in Uptown Waterloo: The Loop. Run by a sneaker head named Al. Be sure to stop by the place. Just bring a hanky to catch the drool. And in the meantime, take a look at these fly kicks from Al\u2019s personal collection as he breaks them down \u2013 one pair at a time… <\/p>\n

The Loop\u2019s Al Keshvani owns upwards of four hundred pairs of sneakers.
\nHis Jordans, though, remain among his most treasured. Learn a bit about these five pairs from Al\u2019s personal collection. School is in session:<\/em><\/p>\n

Jordan \u2018Fire Red\u2019 5s<\/strong>
\nRe-release 2013. Valued at $300+<\/em>
\n\"\"
\n\u2018This is the shoe that started it all for me. While the pair featured here is a 2013 re-release, the original Jordan 5s were released in 1990 when I was a young kid. My parents didn\u2019t have much money back then, so owning Jordans never seemed to be a possibility for me. Until one day when my mom took me to a sneaker shop in the old Waterloo Town Square and surprised me with a pair of 5s. I still own those original 5s and retain an immense emotional attachment to them. And I\u2019ll never forget that gesture of love.’<\/p>\n

Jordan \u2018Bred\u2019 1s<\/strong>
\nRe-release 2013. Valued at $300+<\/em>
\n\"\"
\n\u2018Every Jordan collector \u2013 indeed, every sneaker collector \u2013 needs at least one pair of Jordan 1s. The 1s were originally introduced in 1985 and became (in)famous when the NBA fined Michael Jordan $5,000 every time he hit the court with them (because the black and red \u2013 or \u2018bred\u2019 \u2013 colourway didn\u2019t meet league uniform code). They\u2019re also the shoes that Michael Jordan wore when he dropped 63 in the playoffs against Larry Bird\u2019s Celtics. Legend.\u2019<\/p>\n

Jordan \u2018Black Cement\u2019 3s<\/strong>
\nRe-release 2011. Valued at $300+<\/em>
\n\"\"
\n\u2018Jordan 3s have a historical and cultural significance. Originally released in 1988, not only are they the first Jordans to incorporate the \u2018elephant print\u2019 \u2013 which has become a brand element the world over \u2013 but they also introduced filmmaker Spike Lee\u2019s character Mars Blackmon to the world as Michael Jordan\u2019s sidekick in Air Jordan television commercials. Around this same time, Spike Lee directed such politically- and racially-charged movies as \u2018Do The Right Thing\u2019 \u2013 linking Jordans and early hip hop culture with political action.\u2019<\/p>\n

Jordan \u2018True Blue\u2019 3s<\/strong>
\nRe-release 2011. Valued at $350+<\/em>
\n\"\"
\n\u2018I\u2019ve got a lot of Jordans in my collection \u2013 including several pairs of the same Jordan models but in different colourways. I consider these blue-centric Jordan 3s
\na ying to the yang of my \u2018Black Cement\u2019 pair. 3s are
\nalso what he wore during All-Star weekend in Chicago where Michael won the Slam Dunk contest (for his unforgettable foul-line dunk) and MVP honours of the All-Star Game.’<\/p>\n

Jordan \u2018Concord\u2019 11s<\/strong>
\nRe-release 2011. Valued at $700+<\/em>
\n\"\"
\n\u2018All collectors want these sneakers. When famed Jordan designer Tinker Hatfield showed Michael Jordan the prototypes, Jordan wore them during the Bull\u2019s 1995 playoff run \u2013 forcing Nike to release the prototype as the real thing. The patent leather lowers are so sexy that after they were released in 1995 Michael Jordan himself predicted that they\u2019d be paired with suits. And he was right. Besides 3s, a sweet pair of.11s might be the most iconic pair of Jordans ever. <\/p>\n

<\/span> loopclothing.net
\n<\/i><\/span> @loopclothing
\n<\/a><\/i><\/span> Loop Clothing<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“WHAT ARE THOSE?” THE LOOP’S AL KESHVANI DROPS SNEAKER SCIENCE BY CHRIS TIESSEN I saw my first pair of Jordans back in 1989. I was eleven years old and one of my best friends, Mike Gardner, bought a pair of Jordan 4s for basketball season. He showed them to me at practice. White with grey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[93,113,7,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-issue-4","category-lifestyle","category-waterloo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/1DSC_0038sm2.jpg?fit=1920%2C1355&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8KDF5-kL","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1298,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1287\/revisions\/1298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toquemagazine.com\/hello\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}