Concord 11s

In the brief history of sneaker collecting, there have been a few shoes that have caused a frenzy in the collecting community. The frenzy is usually achieved by being very limited - in both release and / or colour, and having some significant place in some sports person's career. While this shoe may have been significant, in being the shoe that Michael Jordan wore when he returned to the NBA after his first retirement, it does not meet the criteria of being limited, as it was generally released to the public. The shoe I am talking about is the Air Jordan XI (11) - Concord.

They are similar to another shoe that I have, being the Air Jordan XI (11) - Space Jams. I would think of that pair as being iconic - as they were featured in a film. These Concords I do not consider as special. What I do not understand is that the whole sneaker community went into a shopping frenzy in an attempt to get these. I ended up the night of the release lining up at the Swanston Street (Melbourne) Footlocker shop for their midnight release. I was the third last person in line. Around 40 people were in front of me. I have not seen this type of release in Melbourne yet.

The box is not the same as with other Air Jordans. It comes with its own customized box, in a similar look to the customized box the Space Jams were in. The "2-3" found on the back of the heels of the shoes are embossed on the lid of the box which is now in white, as well as the patent leather upper wave cut being on the side of the box. The box opens like a shelf, not with a lid - again similar to the Space Jams box. Opening it up leads to a plastic cover with the words:

• "Tinker made them shine."
• "Mike made them fly."
• "You made them iconic."

One of the images I did not capture was the inside of the tongue with the words - "Quality Basketball Products Inspired by the Greatest Player Ever". I can say that there has been an improvement made in the manufacturing of the XIs since the Space Jams. On the Space Jams, there were these "pimples" on the midsole. It was like there was additional material poured into the mold that was not cleaned up during the assembly of the shoe. There does not appear to be any such lack of quality from this pair. Here are the images for the shoe:

Only time will give a proper indication if the quality will last with this shoe, but as you may notice from the image, the problematic yellowing of the soles is still there. The images are of the shoe unworn, and you can already see yellowing where the herringbone pattern section are attached to the clear sole. The only other main difference I have noticed is the darker carbon fiber shank (in comparison to the Space Jams) and the use of an opaque toe. This was actually a differentiating factor when comparing the early release / beta models of the Concords to the proper shop release.

I still do not understand why people went out of their way to get these sneakers as I do not find them more attractive than other Air Jordans that have come out in the past, and the ones that are currently available, but I did find them alluring enough to find a pair for myself, KittyKat, and a little person who may bless us with their presence one day.