This weekend marked the launch of the latest shoe in the iconic Air Jordan franchise, the Air Jordan XX9. Following a full summer championing performance basketball across North America and around the world, the brand hosted a celebration of flight in New York and Los Angeles as consumers lined up for their first chance to take home the game shoe.
Over the past few months, Jordan Brand brought its one-of-a-kind combination of style and performance to some of basketball’s biggest moments. During summer tournaments in Las Vegas, the brand built a full basketball court inside the Cosmopolitan Hotel’s Chelsea Theater, hosting a slam dunk contest on ESPN’s SportsCenter Top 10 Plays segment.
In Chicago, the Jordan team built a basketball court in all white to host the Chi League Finals, tipping off an epic celebration of the heritage and culture of basketball. The Windy City festivities continued when Jordan Brand custom built an indoor AJ XX9 trialing space in Jackson Park.
In China, Jordan Brand opened Nike Lab X158 SHA showcasing the technology and design of the Air Jordan XX9 and the history of the brand with an acousto-optic effect. The brand continued the anticipation when it brought the Air Jordan XX9 story to Barcelona, Spain, the next stop for the WBF. In addition to media trials, an Innovation Summit featured shoe designer Rob Bruce speaking about the groundbreaking technologies featured in the Air Jordan XX9.
To celebrate launch weekend, the brand hosted events on both coasts. In New York, it took over the Footaction store adjacent to Flight 23 at Footaction so consumers could try the AJ XX9 before buying it. In Los Angeles Jordan Brand’s Russell Westbrook hosted a takeover of the Center Plaza at Santa Monica Place. Serving as a platform for attendees to take flight, consumers took home a digital gif of themselves dunking in the Air Jordan XX9.
MORE TO COME
The journey for the Air Jordan XX9, has only just begun. Over the weekend Jordan.com released its first innovation page that allows consumers to dive deeper into the technology behind its latest game shoe. The page gives a breakdown of FlightPlate illustrating how these elements combine to give athletes first-step supremacy, second-jump dominance and jump-shot boost.
Jordan Brand also released the “Get Up” commercial. ” The video invites the world to grab a pair of Air Jordan XX9s and #TakeFlight, fulfilling a desire we’ve all had since birth. “Get Up” will be featured on the brand’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channels.
