The Air Jordan 3 'Racer Blue' References the Past to Move Into the Future
The legendary silhouette arrives with a colorful twist and an update on an iconic print.
The Air Jordan 3 is perhaps the most pivotal shoe in the Air Jordan lineup after the Air Jordan 1.
Following the release of the Air Jordan 2, the two people who did the most to bring Michael Jordan to Nike—Peter Moore, the designer of the first two Air Jordan silhouettes, and marketing VP Rob Strasser—left the company to start a new brand. Jordan’s contract with the Swoosh was set to expire in 1988, and Moore and Strasser wasted no time trying to woo Jordan away from the Beaverton giant to their footwear upstart, Van Grack.
Rising designer Tinker Hatfield was asked to pick up where Moore had left off, noting in the Netflix documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design the shoe was, “six months behind schedule by the time it was given to me.” Hatfield spoke to the Chicago Bulls star, learning he was interested in a shoe that was easy to break in, had both flair and refinement, and sat somewhere in between a low-top and high-top.
Between the rushed timeline and Jordan’s clear expectations, the stakes couldn’t have been higher. All was quiet when the moment came to share the third Air Jordan silhouette with the man himself. It couldn’t have gone better.
Are there any new ‘Racer Blue’ releases?'
'Racer Blue’ has been used as a colorway on other releases across Air Jordan and Nike silhouettes. Recent and upcoming releases in a similar color include the: