Tinker Hatfield Shares Five Aspects Of The New Jordan Standard Shoe

When it comes to footwear design, Nike’s Tinker Hatfield is in a league of his own. The mastermind behind legendary silhouettes like the Air Max 1 and Jordan 3 has been at the very pinnacle of the sneaker world for over 30 years, and he recently shared five things that he wants sneakerheads to know about Jordan’s new lifestyle shoe, the Standard. Here’s five key points from Tinker’s Jordan Standard design process:

Update: The Jordan Standard is available now on Nike.com.

If the shoe looks familiar to you, that’s no accident. It’s inspired by Nike’s classic Sock Dart, originally released in 2004 and designed by Tinker’s brother Tobie. The Jordan Standard draws from the original design, but also modernizes it for a fresh new look with a nod to the past.

Hatfield wanted the shoe to be easy on, easy off. The simplicity of putting on and removing the shoe was just as important to him as the sleek aesthetic.

The shoe features three different textures: a head-turning feathered leather on the forefoot, stretch elephant print on the midfoot strap, and spacer mesh around the collar.

Although both shoes appear to be solid-colored at first glance, they feature three tonal shades. Hatfield nodded to the importance of contrast, stating “It’s hard to match colors, so we just sort of celebrate them. And the feathered leather really photographs as a different color because there’s so much shadow.”

Although futuristic in its overall aesthetic, the shoe still offers plenty of classic Jordan inspiration. Hatfield mentioned that when he originally released the Jordan 3 with elephant print, the “floater leather” that the print was made up of typically was not used for basketball, as it wasn’t considered to be durable enough, but he did it anyway. The elephant emboss re-appears on the Standard, and the feathered leather is a bold new look not typically seen in athletic footwear.

Pricing information for the Jordan Standard is not available yet, but look for both colorways of the new lifestyle sneaker to release on Nike.com April 30th.