Air Jordan 1 "Metallic Red"

The Air Jordan 1 in Metallic Red is one of the original colorways released in 1985, part of the first wave of Nike’s signature shoe for Michael Jordan during his rookie season with the Chicago Bulls. The Air Jordan 1 itself marked a turning point in basketball footwear, blending athletic performance with a design that the NBA famously fined Jordan for wearing, a detail that only amplified the shoe’s cultural weight as Nike leaned into the controversy through advertising.

The Metallic Red colorway works with a predominantly red leather upper, accented by metallic silver hits that reflect the design language of the mid-1980s, a period when athletic footwear was beginning to absorb influence from sport-adjacent fashion. The construction follows the high-top silhouette that defined the original Air Jordan 1 lineup, featuring the early Nike Air branding on the ankle collar and the Wings logo that would become synonymous with the Jordan line going forward.

As one of the OG 1985 releases, this colorway predates the SKU and style code conventions that Jordan Brand would later standardize, which is part of why documentation on original pairs remains scattered across collector archives and auction records. The shoe was produced under the Nike umbrella before Jordan Brand existed as a separate entity, giving these early pairs a distinct identity separate from later retro releases.

The Metallic Red has since been revisited as part of Jordan Brand’s High 85 retro set, which prioritized returning the shoe to its original construction details, including the lower foxing tape and slightly different collar shape that distinguished 1985 production from the more widely seen retros of the 2000s and beyond.