Riff Raff wins again. If you put your opinion of his music aside you still cannot deny Riff Raff and his team around him on their run of marketing wins the last few years. His social media following and the interaction from the followers is proof enough that someone is doing something right. To kick off the new year he posted a back shot of a pair of Air Jordans that he claimed are a supposed prototype of a future summer 2015 release from JB:
“SHOUT OUT TO MiCHAEL JORDAN & THE JORDAN BRAND THiS iS A PROTO TYPE OF THE NEW NEON iCON RiFF RAFF JORDAN’S THAT WiLL BE A LiMiTED EDiTiON SHOE DROPPiNG iN CHAMPS, FOOT LOCKER, FOOT ACTiON & FLiGHT CLUB SUMMER OF 2015 FOR $750 AND COMES WiTH AN AUTOGRAPHED COPY OF MY PEACH PANTHER & THE PURPLE PANTHER ALBUM”- @JodyHighRoller aka Riff Raff via Instagram.
The shoes:
Now we have no idea about the true story behind these but from the evidence at hand this shoe is an obvious custom painted effort. The base shoe was likely the early 2013 Air Jordan V white/black/fire red.
Evidence:
1. The tongue liner was dyed black, but not completely. The tint of the original red material can still be seen. It obviously doesn’t match that of the ankle liner which is much darker. The ankle liner was also dyed as it began red, which you can see some questionable spots on the right side that could be factory glue or maybe paint.
2. The Jumpman logo is painted. It was likely red to start so going from dark to light isn’t the easiest job when it comes to painting embroidery. Either a lot of pink paint was used or it was painted white first and then pink. Either way a bit too much paint was used. The texture of the thread is pretty much lost. Oh if you look close on the A on Raff you can slightly see the pink paint on the leather.
3. Pretty much all the Air Jordan V’s with 23 on the side have had them embroidered. This 23 is flush with the surface of the leather. Painted? Yeah.
4. The Riff Raff logo. Its painted. Either hand painted or with a vinyl stencil. But it IS painted.
5. The black leather is painted. The finish pretty much gives it away. If you’ve seen painted leather you can tell. Also it could be the light reflecting but there might be some edges of the heel panel that didn’t get a full coverage of paint as well.
In conclusion Riff Raff still comes out winning as his story made more waves than if it was titled “Look at my new custom painted Air Jordans”. Yet maybe there is a release on board and JB told somebody to custom paint his design. Thaaaat’s a stretch.
Still don’t believe it is a custom? The brightness was bumped up on Photoshop below. The tongue liner was obviously red at one point.
