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Killing for shoes. It sounds like nonsense, but it happened. Not only once, but several times. The last time it happened was in September 2019.
This is one of the dark sides which is brought up in the documentary “One man and his shoes” directed by London filmmaker Yemi Bamiro and produced by Will Thorne. It portrays the social phenomenon of Air Jordan and the outrageous success of the sneaker, and how its connected to social issues, politics, pop culture, and race. Moreover, Bamiro shows also the other side of the shield. He makes clear how manipulating marketing can be and that it can lead to serious social issues that happened since the ’90s when young people started to kill people for a pair of AirJordans.
“Bamiro portrays both sides of the AirJordan story: Its massive success and the other darker side of the coin”
The project was in the making for over five years and was made completely independently. Over time the idea switched from making a feature film about collecting Air Jordan to revealing facts that may not be known by everyone.
Not only can the movie be seen as a story about the successful collaboration between Jordan and Nike, but also as an analogy and perhaps criticism for today’s companies on the market and the way they operate. Nowadays, various brands work together with icons from the music industry, like Drake or Travis Scoot. All of them have a strong connection to the youth culture and the power to influence their behaviour which is one of the main goals of brands.
While Bamiro is honouring the superb and outrageous Michael Jordan and making clear what he did for the Black culture, he equally manages to bring up a different perspective on him and his worldwide sneaker imperium. He presents all of the facts about this “one man” and his shoe empire without telling what is right or what is wrong so that in the end, it’s up to the audience to decide whether the doc tells a happy ending or not.
A multi-layered story, with a good mix of interview sections with experts and real-time exposures from the ’90s surprising all AirJordan fans by showing them the other side of the story. A must-see for all crazy Jordan collectors!
The film will soon be available on DOC PLAY
