The Air Jordan 1 has always been a leather story. Back in 1984, the high-top that put rookie Michael Jordan on the court got there through leather paneling and colorblocking, defining an entire generation's sneaker aesthetic. But this time in Chicago, it wasn't a shoemaker giving the silhouette a new voice—it was an artist working with a crochet hook.
Jordan Design Studio is the brand's global workshop initiative launched this year, touring eight cities including Beijing, Seoul, Los Angeles, and New York. At each stop, local emerging creatives are invited to reinterpret the Air Jordan 1 High OG "Love Letter" and what the shoe means to them personally. The winning designs from each city will eventually converge for a grand finale in Shanghai, competing for a shot at actually joining the Air Jordan product lineup. For the first stop of the U.S. leg, the brand chose the place where it all began—Chicago.
Over three days behind closed doors, Chicago-based artist and longtime brand collaborator Nina Chanel Abney joined Jordan's in-house design team to guide six creatives through cutting, sewing, painting, and sculpting—breaking the AJ1 down into whatever language each of them knew best. The eventual winner was Chelsea B, a textile artist from Chicago's South Side and a Savannah College of Art & Design graduate, whose medium of choice is crochet hook and yarn. "I've always been an artist. I see creation through the eyes of the kid I once was, and every time I make something, it's a tribute to her," she said.
The other five participants each approached the shoe's legacy from their own angle. Kristopher Kites, also from the South Side, specializes in jewelry and three-dimensional sculpture, often working with transparent materials to build sculptural objects. "The AJ1's legacy comes effortlessly—it's the one for a reason. Getting to be part of its evolution is wild," he said. Multimedia artist Bianca Pastel drew from childhood memory: "The AJ1 is so nostalgic to me. It's the first shoe I remember—from begging my dad for a pair during basketball season to seeing it show up in cartoons."
Fashion designer Jasir Bailey, founder of his own label Stockboy Chicago and the youngest business owner in the Hyde Park community, has worn the AJ1 since middle school all the way through launching his own brand—it's remained a constant source of inspiration. Recent high school graduate and former Virgil Abloh Foundation member, painter Houefa, teamed up with writer Dionne for the competition. "Past generations set the tone with the AJ1. Now it's our turn to leave our mark," Houefa said. Tre Abney, founder of faith-driven label We Are Righteous, approached it from the brand's stature: "Not everyone gets to touch the Air Jordan 1. Forty-plus years later, we're still talking about the same shoe—that's legacy."
Six wildly different crafts, and in the end, yarn beat out leather and metal—which, in a way, gets at what this workshop was really testing: not whose technique was sharpest, but whose "why" rang truest. The brand has yet to announce details for the remaining U.S. tour stops or the Shanghai finale.
