Will Smith and Jordan go back a long way, all the way to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, where the young actor wore new pairs of the sneakers for every episode. If you watched closely, you would have noticed that, beyond the inside-out jacket he wore on the show, most of the time his shoes were actually without laces. Nike clearly noticed the style, because they once put together an Air Jordan 5 “Fresh Prince” Fire Red sample – a shoe designed without laces. Now, all these years later, a pair of the unreleased kicks has surfaced.
It’s easy to mistake the sneaker for the classic Air Jordan 5 Fire Red. They look remarkably similar. It’s the same white leather upper, black midsole and red shark teeth we’ve seen before. It’s the colorway Michael Jordan wore himself during the 1990 NBA season. The major change is that it doesn’t have laces at all.
In 2018, the brand released the laceless Air Jordan 5 NRG Fresh Prince in the Grape colorway on September 25. But this specific colorway went unreleased. Jordan designed the sneakers with closed eyelets and internal bands to lock your foot in place. It was always meant to be a callback to The Fresh Prince.
And while the missing laces make them unique, there are a few other standout features for these designs too – like the striped insole inspired by his jacket. The tongue also has an upside-down “Air Jordan” logo in purple and teal, which we haven’t seen on any other shoe. Then there’s also that “West Philadelphia” branding.
We have @collectors_closet and @depeche23mode to thank for a look at the sneakers, which many thought we lost over a decade ago.
Of course, all of this means that you won’t be able to get your hands on a pair anytime soon. They aren’t for retail. Still, it’s nice to see all these hidden and forgotten pairs surface all these years later. Just recently, we got a look at the Air Jordan 10 “Martin” sample. It makes you wonder what else Jordan Brand still has locked up in the vault.
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