Here's Why Everyone Loves The Dior x Air Jordan 1 High

On December 3rd 2019, Nike made history with the Dior x Air Jordan 1 High. Unveiled at the French luxury fashion house's pre-Fall 2020 show in Miami, the collaboration took the world completely by storm. Not only did it turn the sneaker industry on its head, it was also the centre of attention in mainstream media for the entire week - a feat that has only been achieved by a select few sneakers over the past few decades. With all that said, here's why everyone has fallen in love with Dior's AJ1.

To kick things off, it's important to take into account the timing of this announcement. Although it's set to drop in April of next year, it also coincides with the the famed silhouette’s 35th anniversary as well as Dior Men’s collection debut in the US.

To add to this, it was unwrapped the day before the release of the Prada x adidas Superstar. In just a flick of a switch, Creative Director Kim Jones turned all the attention away from the Three Stripes' high end collaboration and directed it towards his own. In fact, right after the unveiling, we posted a poll on Twitter and of the thousands of people surveyed, 88% preferred the Dior x Air Jordan 1 High over the Prada x adidas Superstar. Very few sneaker collabs have achieved this type of hype, and it's the result of a risky yet strategic move on Dior's behalf that we can fully respect and appreciate.

Sneakerheads also love the AJ1's design. It's very hard for us not to talk about the Prada Superstar as that's quite literally the only competitor out there, but their designs are on opposite sides of the spectrum. adidas played it extremely safe with their shoe, working on a white canvas with Prada's logo printed on the lateral side. While it's extremely clean and tasteful, some have called the design "lazy" and "too boring".

On the other hand, Nike's effort ticks all the right boxes. It hasn't just taken the AJ1 and slapped Dior's logo onto it. Instead, it's modified its shoe to fit with the brand's current aesthetic, even going as far as changing their iconic winged basketball logo to read "Air Dior". While it is definitely quite minimal, colour blocking continues to play a huge part here with a custom white and "Dior Grey" colour palette that was developed just for this shoe as an homage to the sky above Christian Dior’s childhood home.

It also references the Parisian house's own silhouettes with a lacy Swoosh that shoots across the side panels, influenced by their popular B-23 High Top sneaker that has, in its own right, been making waves this year. This shoe is also finished off with an icy blue rubber outsole that's encases a pair of logos on each shoe, like a bulletproof glass box housing a piece of art in a museum.

Now let's talk about numbers. Both the Dior AJ1 and Prada Superstar are extremely exclusive, limited to 1,000 pairs and 700 pairs respectively. However, the luxury tennis shoe is over £800 more expensive. While it does come with an enlarged version of the Italian label's legendary Bowling Bag, it makes one wonder if you're paying that money for the bag or the shoes.

To put this into perspective, Prada's latest Bowling Bag, which was unveiled at the Resort 2020 show, has an RRP of £1,630. That means without this piece, the Superstars should only really cost £700. Even at this price, it's hard to fathom why anyone would pay that for a pair, considering you can buy a GR white pair and a pack of black Sharpies for 1/7th of the price.

A combination of timing, design, and pricing are all reasons why every everyone loves the Dior x Air Jordan 1 High. A partnership that has allegedly been in the works since the reign of Kris Van Assche in 2017, it's sure to go down in history as one of the hottest sneaker collaborations ever made. While it's obvious that not everyone who wants a pair will be able to buy it, you need to bear in mind that this is like a piece of art, so just sit back, relax, and enjoy the view.