The internet just can’t get enough of talking cars. But few people remember the original talking car, KITT, from Knight Rider. While the concept has somewhat faded into obscurity over the years, loyal fans worldwide still would kill to get their hands on this pair of Knight Rider-inspired custom Air Jordan 11 sneakers.
Knight Rider was first brought to life as a TV series in 1982 that ran until 1986 and starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, who goes around saving the world “with the help of a virtually indestructible and artificially intelligent supercar”, the Knight Industries 2000, which came to be lovingly known as Kitt (Knight Industries Two Thousand), as he could speak, and his witty retorts were half the fun of the series.
KITT was physically embodied in the 1982 Knight Rider as a stunning and modified 1982 Pontiac Trans Am, with a front red light and a futuristic dashboard to fit the hyper-intelligent feel. Of course, some sneakers are intelligent, but what better silhouette to bring the sleek idea of KITT to life than with the patent leather pair that is the Air Jordan 11?
Jarrod Saunders here at Fortress of Solitude has designed a stunning concept for a pair of Knight Rider-inspired Air Jordan 11 sneakers (using AI Generative software and Photoshop). Let’s take a detailed look. Starting from the bottom, the outsole is a semi-translucent gum that reveals the black midsole, giving the outsole and midsole a really excellent effect that adds depth to the pair’s look.
The seamless patent leather that wraps around the whole bottom half of the sneaker’s upper is a metallic red that perfectly matches the red light that we know to be KITT’s signature color, other than black, represented on the rest of the sneaker. The metallic red patent leather perfectly represents the sleekness of the 1982 Pontiac Trans Am, and it will make you wish that KITT was red and not black.
As mentioned above, the rest of the upper is black to match KITT’s out colour. The upper section is textured leather, separated by the tabs that hold the criss-cross laces of the Air Jordan 11 sneakers in place. The tongue is the same textured material but features a black patent leather section, looking like the tinted windows of a supercar.
The decorative stitching along the upper, as well as the Jumpman branding on the tongue of the sneakers, are brought to life with red, matching a filament LED at the forefront of the sneakers embedded in a lace holder to represent the red light you can see emanating from the front of KITT’s bonnet.
Considering the chokehold that Knight Rider had on pop and nerd culture back in the day, it’s surprising that we don’t see more sneaker concepts like this because the concept of Knight Rider is something that has lived on despite the longevity of the TV Show coming to an end.
