Why the 14 is the right Jordan to hand to a designer

Most Air Jordans are built from panels. The 14 is built from shapes – the sharp, car-derived lines that run from the heel to the toe, the badge on the side, the way the midsole sweeps rather than steps. That makes it unusually responsive to a redesign. A colourway change on a 1 or a 3 reads as a colourway change. On a 14 it reads as a different object, because the form is doing more of the work.

The designer

Mowalola Ogunlesi built a following in London on clothes that are loud, tight and deliberately unpolished – a look that borrows from Nigerian and London street style at the same time. Bringing that sensibility to a Jordan means the shoe stops being a period piece and becomes a piece of fashion product, which is a harder trick than it sounds.

The 14 in context

The original 14 landed in 1998, at the end of the Bulls run, and it is the shoe most people picture when they think about how that era ended. It has been retroed many times since, in colourways that range from faithful to forgettable. What makes the designer versions worth paying attention to is that they take the risk the standard retros do not: they change how the shoe reads, not just what colour it is.

If you are collecting the 14

• The original shape matters. The 14 has been reissued with slightly different proportions over the years. If you want the 1998 read, look at the older retros.
• Collabs hold value differently. Designer pairs are made in smaller numbers and are usually not restocked, so the window to buy at retail is short.
• Wear them. The 14 is comfortable enough to wear out, and most of the pairs in circulation have already been worn.

We carry the 14 alongside the rest of the Jordan retro line on the Air Jordan page.