Air Jordan 16 "OG"

The Air Jordan 16 arrived in 2001 as Michael Jordan’s signature shoe for what would become his first season with the Washington Wizards, though the shoe was designed and built around his final championship run with the Chicago Bulls. It represents one of the more polarizing chapters in the Air Jordan line, largely because of the shroud.

The defining design element is a woven textile overlay that wraps the midfoot and conceals the lacing system entirely. Tinker Hatfield drew inspiration from Jordan’s poker face, the idea of concealing one’s hand, and the result is a shoe that reads almost formally compared to the aggressive profiles that preceded it in the line. The shroud can be detached, revealing a conventional lace setup underneath, which gave the 16 a rare dual identity among performance basketball shoes of its era.

The OG colorway presents the shoe in its cleanest, most direct form: a white and black base with red accents, keeping the palette aligned with the Bulls’ colors Jordan had worn for six titles. That connection feels deliberate given the timing. Nike released the shoe as Jordan was stepping back into a different uniform, so the colorway functions as a kind of retrospective, grounding the 16 in the dynasty years rather than the new chapter beginning in Washington.

The full-length Air Sole unit and carbon fiber plate were competition-grade specs for 2001, though the shoe’s aesthetic drew more attention than its performance credentials at the time. Collectors and purists who initially dismissed the shroud concept have gradually warmed to the 16 as one of the more architecturally distinct entries in the Jordan catalog.