The Air Jordan 1 is the most mythologised sneaker ever made, and the most repeated part of the myth is the part nobody can document.

Peter Moore designed it in 1985 for a rookie who had not yet proven anything. The story everyone tells is that the NBA banned it and Nike paid the fines. Very little of that is established.

The letter is real and dates to February 1985, but it has only ever surfaced as a partial image. The incident it cites happened on or around October 18, 1984, and that date is the interesting part, because the Bulls did not open their season until October 26 against Washington. Whatever Jordan wore eight days before that was worn in preseason, and the Air Jordan 1 had not released yet. Which shoe the league actually objected to is genuinely contested, and the evidence leans toward the Air Ship rather than the 1.

The five thousand dollar per game fine is repeated everywhere and established nowhere. No source shows it was levied or paid, as opposed to threatened. None of which makes the campaign dishonest so much as extremely good, and it is worth knowing, because a lot of what sneaker culture treats as history started life as advertising copy.

What is not myth is what happened next. The 1 struggled commercially in its second and third years, ended up discounted, and got picked up by skaters who liked the ankle support and the price. That accidental second life is why the silhouette survived to be reissued at all, and it is why Nike SB versions still carry weight that most retros do not.

Now it is the default collector shoe, which creates its own problem. There are more Air Jordan 1 colorways in circulation than any person can track, and the gap between a genuinely scarce pair and a general release that merely looks scarce has never been wider. The High OG, the Low OG and the Mid are three different markets wearing one name, and the Mid is where most disappointment happens.

This page tracks every Air Jordan 1 we cover, all three cuts together, with release dates, retail prices, style codes, and where to buy. The notes flag which construction you are actually getting, because that is the difference that shows up later.

By Nick Engvall, founder of becausesneakers and Sneaker History.