Air Jordan 13

About

The Air Jordan 13 debuted in 1997, the work of designer Tinker Hatfield, who drew inspiration from the black panther — an animal he associated with Michael Jordan's predatory agility on the court. The sole was shaped to mimic the pads of a panther's paw, and a circular hologram on the heel was positioned to catch light in the dark, imitating a panther's eyes. Beneath the leather upper sits a carbon fiber plate, a high-performance material that kept the 13 firmly in basketball reality while its design language pushed into something more totemic. Jordan wore the shoe across his sixth and final championship run with the Chicago Bulls in 1997–98. The cultural footprint expanded in 1998 when director Spike Lee featured the Jordan 13 in his film He Got Game months before its public release — one of the earliest instances of a sneaker achieving blockbuster placement. In April 2023, a game-worn pair from the 1997–98 season sold at auction for .2 million, a world record for the most valuable sneakers ever sold. The Playoffs and French Blue colourways are the most coveted retros in India's secondary market.