King Ice, LA based online jeweler, was founded by Derek Belay and Cuong Diep in 2007. They built their brand by capitalizing on the niche of men’s custom jewelry, in particular, the Hip-Hop segment. They’ve worked with artists and celebrities such as Wiz Khalifa, The Game, Snoop Dogg, and Mike Tyson to name a few. Their products have also appeared in ESPN the magazine, films, music videos, and TV shows like “Empire.”

Now King Ice has created a 14K gold sneaker medallion inspired by one of the greatest NBA players of all time in Michael Jordan. Using gold plating, the Air Jordan 4 inspired medallion features black shoelaces and a laser engraved “King Ice” stamp on the bottom of each shoe. The medallion also comes with a 30”, 4mm rope chain and is encased in a black leather box with a red interior and the “King Ice” logo embossed on the front.

King Ice AJ 4 Reivew 1

King Ice recently sent us, here at Sneaker Bar Detroit, one of their Air Jordan 4 medallions. Initially I was impressed with the presentation of the black leather box and opening it up to see the gold medallion and chain resting on the soft red interior. Something else that stood out to me was the fact that they seemed to go out of their way to NOT mention “Air Jordan 4” specifically. Maybe that was due to legal reasons, but we all have eyes.

King Ice AJ 4 Reivew

The jewelry itself LOOKS nice but it’s basically costume jewelry for sneakerheads, which is kind of disappointing considering the level or notoriety King Ice has as a high profile jeweler. The medallion is gold plated which means basically you have a few good wears before it starts chipping away. I tried wearing it around to see if it would grow on me, but after a couple of minutes the “gold” rope chain was irritating my neck. Needless to say the rop wasn’t real gold. I felt like a vampire wearing a silver noose.

King Ice AJ 4 Reivew 2

In any event, if this Air Jordan 4 inspired piece is appealing to you and you are interested in purchasing one for yourself they’re currently going for $100 on KingIce.com. We will be doing a giveaway with the one we received on “The Sneaker Box” podcast. Catch new episodes every Wednesday afternoon for more details.