14-Jan-2010
Tony Hardman was part of the original judging team for the Air Jordan Design Competition on Counter Kicks‘ official footwear design division, Project Bluefoot. His unconventional route into the footwear industry took him from working retail to freelancing at Jordan Brand and eventually working at Skechers. And now? Say hello to your newest Nike Employee, Tony Hardman…
30-Dec-2009
Our footwear design partner site Project Bluefoot has invited the 2009 Nike Future Sole Finalists to each share their first-hand account on what it was like making the trip up to Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, OR for the annual Nike-sponsored footwear design competition for high school students run by D’Wayne Edwards, Design Director at Jordan Brand. The latest Finalist to tell their story is Matt DeAlmeida from Arlington, MA. Continue reading for DeAlmeida’s complete Future Sole recap as originally posted on Project Bluefoot, including exclusive concept sketches of his winning leaf-inspired Nike design.
15-Dec-2009
Our partner site Project Bluefoot has invited the 2009 Nike Future Sole Finalists to each share their first-hand account on what it was like making the trip up to Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, OR for the annual Nike-sponsored footwear design competition run by D’Wayne Edwards, Design Director at Jordan Brand. The latest Finalist to tell their story is Ethan Dean from Rochester, MI. Continue reading for Dean’s complete Future Sole recap as originally posted on Project Bluefoot, including exclusive concept sketches and renderings of his re-worked Nike Hyperflight design.
16-Nov-2009
Project Bluefoot has exclusively invited all four Nike Future Sole 2009 Finalists to share their first-hand experience on the annual Nike-sponsored design competition and trip up to Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, OR. The experience series launches today with 2009 Future Sole Finalist: Daniel Gold. Continue reading for his complete Future Sole recap as originally posted on Project Bluefoot, including exclusive rendering images of Gold’s Melo M6 re-design.
29-Oct-2009
[As originally posted on Counter Kicks' footwear design division: Project Bluefoot.com] The Project Bluefoot x Air Jordan Design Competition is now complete. Our 2 guest judges – Jason Mayden, Senior Designer at Jordan Brand and D’Wayne Edwards, Design Director at Jordan Brand – graciously lent us their design eyes and ears over the past few months to review and critique our debut Project Bluefoot Footwear Design Competition highlighting an Air Jordan theme challenge. A mass came to play. Many challenged. One won. To get the official inside scoop on the finalist concepts and our Air Jordan winner, we now turn over the transmission to Jason Mayden and D’Wayne Edwards who have provided a detailed feedback review of each challenger and selected our ultimate Project Bluefoot Air Jordan Design winner: Tom Matic. Continue reading for the full review…
21-Oct-2009
COUNTERKICKS EXCLUSIVE: In the past couple weeks, we presented you with exclusive photos of an Air Jordan XX1 Prototype in “Italian Red Suede” and “Black Suede Bulls” colorways. Today, we exhibit a new Air Jordan XX1 Prototype in a “Black Leather Carolina” colorway featuring a rich, full-grain black leather upper with black suede cloaking the heel, along with coats of carolina blue trim accenting the forefoot support wraps, laces, and I.P.S. pods.
Code-named the “JORDAN ELEV8” to cloud the identity of the shoe, the XX1’s also went by another name internally: the Air Jordan “Venti Uno” which translates from Italian to “Twenty One“, signaling some initial European design inspirations. As with the previous “Black Suede Bulls” pair, this model features no marking imprints in the rubber outsole stretching across the arch, nor the embossed “Jumpman” logo on the plastic-silver capped lace aglets as the production version features. A final comparison change is the raised suede Jumpman logo seen on the back tongue, where on the released version the words “AUTHENTIC“, “UNCOMPROMISED“, “EARNED“, and “ASPIRATIONAL” – the 4 pillars of the “Jordan Code” – are instead stitched in.
Look for an in-depth tech story on these Prototype Air Jordan XX1’s coming soon to Counter Kicks. Follow us on Twitter for instant sneaker news. And continue reading to view 33 detailed photos of the Air Jordan XXI – “Black Leather Carolina” Prototypes.
15-Oct-2009
Category : Jordan Brand
Carmelo Anthony’s latest signature shoe has arrived. The Jordan Melo M6 takes inspiration from sleek sports cars and of course, mixes it with many details from Melo’s life. The M6 upper construction is based on a single shell unibody technique known as “monocoque“, where all the parts are constructed around a single internal framework – something common in modern day automobiles. The shoe’s cushioning system features a dual-density injection phylon hit at the heel, and a Zoom Air unit at the forefoot. On the outsole, the repeating “M” traction pattern is seen as in previous Melo models, along with a mini graphic representing the Baltimore skyline, the inscription “AU79/08″ to represent the atomic number for gold and Carmelo’s 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medal win, and the lettering “FIFTEEN” as a reference to his Denver Nugget’s jersey number. Melo M6 was designed by Justin Taylor, who has taken the reins of the line over from D’Wayne Edwards (Footwear Design Director at Jordan Brand) who helmed the previous five shoes. Continue reading for more photos of the new Melo M6.
06-Oct-2009
The Top 5 Project Bluefoot: Air Jordan Design Competition Finalists are…
