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If you hunt down Wieden+Kennedy's excellent shelved documentary, you can see sneaker guru and man in the know Thomas Giorgetti, currently making powermoves with Bleu De Paname and Norse's distro, practically spitting at the quality of Jordan II retros. It all comes down to one thing - the OG was that colossal step from the first Jordan installment, ditching the swoosh, and getting all futuristic, with Italian manufacture that made all the difference. This was high-end footwear that could sit alongside the expensive releases of the era, and a genius pieces of design. Anyone who watched 'School Daze' (a great film until the sledgehammer message finale smacks you in the forehead) saw some early Spike brand endorsement with a prolonged scene showing the shoe get cleaned prior to a party scene laden with Dunks. The Skinny Boys wore them well too.

Sadly, as Thomas reinforced, the premium quality makes up a substantial part of the shoe's selling point, and the III would take the flossy aesthetic and ran with it on a revolutionary midsole. As part of the iconic signature line's 25th birthday celebrations, a piece like this (and we've heard talk of an Italian-built retro on the horizon too) might not have the right place of origin on the tag, but using the silver that correlates with last week's shiny Jordan I and an extensive application of Scotchlite-style reflectivity makes this one of the better retro II makeups, next to the Carmelo colourway. Even the shinier panels on the upper aren't killing the overall cleanliness here. As every luxury brand (Christian and Swizzy - huh?) decides they need to get on the high top sneaker bandwagon, we'd prefer it if they took cues from this model, rather than banging out another tiresome Sk8 Hi clone. These are available in the <a href= 'http://www.crookedtongues.com/store/footwear/jordan/1363/air-jordan-ii/'>store</a> at the moment.