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Air Jordan Accolade Brown/White image

As Giggs is prone to ad-lib, Ummm. That's how some of these hybrids and remixes of sacred Jordan designs can make us react in the Crooked office. Take the Air Jordan Accolade as an example. Some of Tinker and Mark Smith's finest moments can be undone by a single straightened panels. Playing with perfection is a minefield, and you can't incur the brilliance of the Jordan X by using that sole unit, complete with a list of Mike's achievements on the outsole. That's why they call this the Accolade. But why make it when the Jordan X, an excellent shoe in itself, already exists? So the point can be laboured a little more with a ton of lasered detailing on the upper too that lacks the reverential subtlety of the original. Still, there's a lot of information going on in this shoe. Busy isn't the word. This is Oxford Circus at 6pm on a weekday. If you're in a solitary situation and caught short without reading materials, you could always browse a pair of these.

We always favoured the sci-fi cleanliness of the X, and embellishing it makes these downright odd. Bear in mind, at time-of-writing we're nostalgic for a time when we thought Air Drills, Determinations and Darwins were imitating some IX and smoothed-out X looks. That upper's got shades of Jordan 2010, a shoe that proved pleasantly controversial. That window wasn't to our tastes, but follow negative feedback and take it away, and what have you got? A pretty standard shoe, and that's not the signature line Jordan way. Hold back on the lasering, retain that Bordeaux branding and this colourway would be the best of the Accolades (which is faint praise, and not an accolade), as it stands, it's another use of existing materials that evokes some mid '90s memories. And by evoking enough classic Jordan curves, it'll sell to a certain consumer who isn't ploughing the message boards for opinion. If it has to be a cut and shut, we're holding our breaths for the meeting of modern Air Max and XII.

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Air Jordan Accolade Brown/White image
Air Jordan Accolade Brown/White image
Air Jordan Accolade Brown/White image
Air Jordan Accolade Brown/White image
Air Jordan Accolade Brown/White image
Air Jordan Accolade Brown/White image

Comments (1)

Anon on July 6, 2010 @ 12:44

ugly jordan!!! live from paris

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