We have dug into the archives for the latest curation. Backstory: The year was 1983 and the event was the Pan-American Games, taking place in Venezuela. There was a budding potentate named Michael Jordan from the University of North Carolina, who didn’t have any playing experience in World Games. This would be his first, along with teammate Sam Perkins. He wore the number 5 and they went on to dominate the games with an undefeated record, and a 12 point margin of victory. The Gold medal game was against Brazil and it was an easy feat versus a formidable opponent, Jordan struggled in the first half, shooting a mere 1 for 5 from the field. However, he grew white hot in the second half with Brazil erasing a large deficit. He shined not only in this game, but led the team in scoring with a 17.3 average.
Fast Forward until now, we drew inspiration from his first experience and decided to ameliorate a pair of Converse that the team wore in his honor. It was only right to use the “block letter 5” on the heel panel. It was a must to keep thing clean and simple, since the original lower mid-cut pair was just white and navy he wore.
There also the navy blocking on the upper rear ankle, to enclose the red star and white background. The front has the Leather “Blue Label” on the tongue. There was a few ideas on how to implement the custom, but when in doubt…”keep it simple”.
We also have the original game worn shorts to further assist in making the curation more authentic and pellucid. The shorts were rehabbed from some inevitable letter peeling (understandable for a pair from 40 years ago), and recolored and now look game ready again! The shorts were dual branded with “Descente” and “Converse” logos. Everything looks a bit more seamlessly done as a result.
Here’s a few more pics showcasing Jordan and his use of the esoteric jersey #5.
To cement the footwear display, we resurrected the actual game warm up pants worn by the teams in the early eighties. Also produced by Descente as well, these are perfectly crafted.
Converse “Pan-Am ’83”