The smashing story behind the shattered backboard Air Jordan 1 high sneakers
Got a second to leap back to mid-Eighties Italy?
Forty years ago, Michael Jordan played an exhibition game in Trieste, a seaport city in north-east Italy, as part of a Nike tour.
The Swoosh had secured the burgeoning basketball player about a year prior (see: Ben Affleck’s Air [2023]) and was essentially flexing him to some of its most important markets.
The aim? To encourage Europeans to buy into Jordan, and, by extension, the Jordan Brand. (Reporting from London all these years later, I can confirm that we look up to the six-foot-six Brooklyn-born athlete almost as much as our friends across the pond.)
Jordan joined Stefanel Trieste for the game, marking his first and only time playing for the Italian team, donning their house colours of orange and black.
The game instantly became part of NBA history when Jordan, with a powerful slam dunk, famously shattered the glass backboard.
It is also recorded in the sneaker history books as, 10 years ago, around the 30-year anniversary of that very game, Nike shared the story through a “Shattered Backboard” Air Jordan 1.
The AJ1 was a fitting choice, given that the iconic silhouette also debuted that same year (reaching its own 30-year milestone in 2015) and was the very shoe MJ wore on court in Trieste.
The original “Shattered Backboard” release, in Stefanel Trieste’s distinctive hues, generated immense buzz within the sneaker community. Its success led to subsequent iterations: a “reverse” version (more orange, less black) the following year, a women’s exclusive satin take in 2018 featuring an embroidered wings logo, and a Halloween-ified patent leather version with a vanilla midsole in 2019.
All remain highly sought-after by collectors globally.
Naturally, Jordan Brand is seizing this year’s opportunity to celebrate the 40th anniversary of both the legendary sports moment and the seminal silhouette with a “Shattered Backboard” reissue.
And… (get excited!) the 2025 form is the most faithful re-release we’ve seen since its genesis.
In fact, it might even trump the original as the near-identical re-release arrives in some fun packaging designed to resemble cracked glass.
Given all of this, it’s no surprise the streets are already calling it a smash hit.
The Air Jordan 1 High “Shattered Backboard” (2025) are available now on nike.com
This story originally appeared on Esquire UK.
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