Air Jordan 1s. The OGs! Today head honcho Kayo Cosio unboxes a pristine pair for our inaugural ‘Opening Act’ series. The ‘NYC to Paris’ Jordan Brand and Nike SB collabo bring together basketball and skateboarding culture in an ode to their shared histories. These scrape-off, high-top sneakers feature a thin outer layer of smooth paint designed to wear away, revealing another colorway beneath.
After opening the removable box top and peeling back the wood veneer paper wrapping, Kayo finds his NYC colored light bone and black paired with black laces. Beneath that, however, is a hidden Paris layer of crimson. To match those colors, the kicks come with extra pairs of pink and peach laces. Inside, they feature an insole with its own zoom air unit.
The story behind these, Kayo explains, is that Nike overproduced the Air Jordan 1s on their first release, so retailers sold them at a steep discount. Skaters were looking for cheap sneakers, since they destroy them so readily, and adopted these discounted Js with a passion. After they scratched the hell out of them, the would paint them only to scratch them up again, revealing different layers of colors.
Kayo decides he likes the NYC colorway and will rock them until they start to wear off. That way he’ll get three pairs out of them; the original, the midway point with both colorways, and then maybe he’ll go and remove all of the NYC coating and wear the Paris version. Can’t beat a deal like that!
