Over the 26 years of Air Jordans a main point of inspiration for their designers has been found in the automotive and airline industries. One of the first was the Air Jordan VI made by the brands most well known designer, Tinker Hatfield. Releasing in 1991 Hatfield’s VI design was created based on the look of the Porsche 911, one of Michael Jordan’s cars at that time. The most telling piece of the shoe became the pronounced, black and red plastic heel tab on the VI that was created in the essence of the 911’s over sized spoiler. Chris Hui of C2 Customs‘ goal on this pair of Air Jordan VIs was to further develop the original inspiration and transform the shoe to embody the look of a Porsche as close as possible.
C2 started out using a youth sized white/varsity red/black Air Jordan VI retro as his base shoe, seen below to understand the amount of changes made. After prepping the shoes properly, change number one was painting all white parts Porsche’s official “Guards Red”, complete with that auto body like shine using a waxed gloss finish. Second the white neoprene tongues were dyed tan to match the rich tan leather interiors. A third subtle detail included painting of the Air Max cavity walls a bright maize to represent the signature Brembo brakes and calipers of the 911s. To add more of that official Porsche look, the placement of emblems on the toe and heels a la hood and trunk was painted with gold and black. The front being a small C and 2, while the back mimics the Porsche coat of arms using the stitched Jumpman logo as its centerpiece. Now that is where many customizers would stop and call it done. The details are what C2 is all about though, as his toughest task was drilling four holes and filling them with hand cut metal to create the look of the Porsche 911’s quad exhaust. Luckily C2 is patient enough to not have mis-drilled the holes considering he probably did that step first and could have easily ruined this pair of Jordans and the entire project. There is no way to imagine how hyped these Porsche Air Jordan VI would be if they were an official Air Jordan release. Thanks to C2 for the first look here on PaintOrThread.com.
Checkout more work by Chris and contact him for your own detailed C2 custom sneaker via his website: C2Customs.com
C2’s Porsche 911 inspiration board:
Before being customized by C2, image via Hypebeast.com
