The Air Jordan XX3, the twenty-third model, arrived in 2008 and meant more than most. It brought Tinker Hatfield back to the signature line, with Mark Smith, for the twenty-third anniversary, the number that meant everything to Jordan. The limited launch ran around two hundred and thirty dollars, with wider releases closer to a hundred and eighty five.

It was also the first high-performance basketball shoe built on Nike’s Considered sustainability ethos, reducing solvents and waste, and it featured a three-dimensional hand-stitched upper patterned after a fingerprint. After the 23, Jordan Brand stepped away from the numbers for a few years to honor what 23 represented.

Treated as the proper capstone of the original numbered run, the XX3 is the most culturally significant model of its stretch, with a notable retro run in 2015. It is the shoe that closed the first chapter of the count.