Overview of the 2005 Jordan 20 OG Midwest Sneakers
Like much of Hatfield’s best work (including the “Black Cat” design of the 13s), the devil is in the details. In order to create a shoe that could summarize the life and career of the greatest basketball player of all time, Hatfield and his team filled the 20s with visual texture that carries hidden meaning. They reward any Michael Jordan enthusiast’s close inspection. For instance:
In addition, the uppers are adorned with over 200 graphic icons that highlight moments not only from Jordan’s career but from his life outside of basketball, including a 1976 Chevrolet Monte Carlo that commemorates Jordan’s mother and a toolbox reading “POPS” in honor of his dad. The twenty “pods” (described below) each feature a different inscribed graphic representing one of the 20 models of Air Jordans.
- On the back of the left heel are the numbers 85 and 05 – marking the release year of the first Air Jordans as well as marking the 20th anniversary
- Six contrasting color “rings” on the heel commemorate the six championship titles that Jordan won
- The dimples along the side of the sneaker number 69 – the number of points that MJ racked up in the highest-scoring game of his career
History of Air Jordan 19
2005 was a big year for Jordan Brand: the twentieth anniversary of the Air Jordan. After two decades of pioneering technical and style innovations that had pushed the sneaker industry forward, it was time for the brand to look back on what it had accomplished. To do that without getting lost in nostalgia, Jordan called on Tinker Hatfield, the designer behind most of the Jordans worn on the court by MJ himself, to create something that would honor the legacies of both Jordan the player and Jordan the brand. Hatfield delivered. The Air Jordan 20 is a wearable retrospective of Michael Jordan’s life and career that also introduced several new features that would forever be associated with the Jordan line.
Jordan 20 OG Midwest 2005
The Jordan 20 OG Midwest sneakers were released on July 1, 2005. These white, red, and black Jordans were a part of a regional pack and were named after the Midwest region they were initially released to. Inspired by the Chicago Bulls, the Jordan OG Midwest features a red nubuck upper laser engraved with etchings of highlights, a white midfoot strap, and a white midsole. Black laser print is used to make the graphics on the red upper. Some of the other features of the Midwest Jordans include a black floating ankle strap, an internal shank at the midfoot, and 20 Independent Podular Suspension pods on the outsole supported by a phylon midsole.