Some shoes are made for their practicality, and others are made to stand out. Our concept is most certainly the latter, featuring a lime green Kryptonite theme. Check out how it went above, and read more about the concept below.
Our concept comes in a lime green leather upper that gives the shoe a striking appearance. Navy blue accents are then used on the laces, tongue, netting, and lining, and the green tongue tag features a navy blue Jumpman logo. Otherwise, the wings on either side of the shoe are navy blue and are connected to metallic green crown-shaped eyelets. The midsole is coated in both navy blue and green and is paired with a green outsole. The use of only two colors gives the sneaker a clean look, and the dark shade of the blue contrasts nicely with the bright green. Also, the darker accents highlight unique details on the shoe, for example, the Jumpman logo or the netting.
The inspiration for this pair was the Nike Foamposite Lite Kryptonite that Nate Robinson wore on his way to winning the 2009 NBA Slam Dunk Contest. The only difference between the Foamposite Lite’s color scheme and our own Kryptonite sneaker was that we swapped the black details for navy blue. As a playful reaction to Dwight Howards Superman costume, Nate Robinson created the narrative that he was Dwight’s weakness, or Superman’s Kryptonite. And for such a spectacular moment, he would of course need his own exclusive sneakers from Nike. His lime green shoes have been iconic from that day forward, and it’s honestly surprising the colorway has never been brought back as a general release since.
We decided to use the colorway on an Air Jordan, the signature shoes of another NBA Slam Dunk champion, and the one we know by his Jumpman silhouette. And it was the Air Jordan 4 that caught our eye since the bold Jumpman tag on the tongue made the sneaker perfect for our Dunk Contest-inspired concept. Whilst we have never seen the Air Jordan 4 in such a bright color, Jordan Brand’s latest collaborations on the model with Virgil Abloh and Union have also been highly experimental, and crucially very successful. So, we decided to have a go, ending up turning the 1989 classic into a silhouette that encapsulates the colorful nature of late 2000s basketball shoes.