Behind The Design: The Michael Jordan X Mitchell & Ness jersey

It wasn't too long after I left And1 (2006) to run my own design business that I received an email from my good friends at Mitchell & Ness asking if I had time to discuss something rather monumental they were working on. I met them at a Marathon Grill, located in Center City Philadelphia and just around the corner from the company's main office near Broad street. While dining on a grilled chicken sandwich, Sean, the M&N president, began to inform me of this unique opportunity that they negotiated with Michael Jordan- the exclusive rights to design and sell his authentic NBA jerseys that his Airness wore throughout his playing career. And so my contribution to the project would encompass the creative side of the jersey release i.e. design, packaging and marketing. Needless to say, there was very little convincing involved. I was all in.


Once I was inside the four walls of Mitchell & Ness, I learned of the overall release plan of the Jordan jersey series. The first jersey to be released was the 1987 Chicago Bulls red road jersey during 2007 NBA All-Star weekend in Las Vegas. To put it in historical context, the day the jersey was to go on sale would be the 20 year anniversary of Jordan's first dunk contest win in Seattle. I took inspiration from his legendary foul line dunk that he used to secure a perfect score of 50 points. It symbolized the first of many legendary "flights" that MJ would become famous for. With this in mind, I began my ideation around creating a series of flight patches that represented his accomplishments of 1987- similar to how an Air Force pilot's flight jacket receives a sewn-on patch to mark achievement

These were the first concepts around the Jordan "flight patches." Ultimately, we decided simplify the story around 1 patch.

This was the initial mock up of how the jersey would look with the patches applied. To maintain the authenticity of the jersey, we decided to remove the patches from the jock tag area and use the 1 patch on the inside of the jersey's packaging.

The final product. In true Mitchell & Ness fashion, every detail was meticulously checked before production. My MJ-approved patch is top left, to the right is a diagram of his legendary foul line dunk along with the certificate of authenticity and the jersey. Only 500 of these boxes were made -we gave box #1 to Jordan himself.

Nicekicks did a teaser on their website prior to the jersey release. You can read it here.