Original Air Jordan 1 Complete Restoration
History
The 1985 Jordan 1 Chicago is the shoe that changed the sneaker industry forever. When people think of Jordan’s this sneaker is what pops up in everyone's head. Michael Jordan set the NBA scoring record at the time in this shoe, and it is the definition of what we today call an iconic sneaker. Shaping the basketball and fashion industry to this day despite it being almost 40 years old. In this restoration Vick and his buddy Alex also known as FlippinKickz restore this ancient shoe. In fact they did the same restoration last year but our editors lost half the footage so the video didn’t make it to youtube, but today it finally made its debut.
Restoration
To Start the video Vick disposed of our once editors body and while that was happening Alex started using the dremel on the midsole of the shoe to get off all of the old glue and to roughen up the material, so the new glue they put onto the soles stays firm and stands the test of time. Alex then cut out new padding to replace the ones that were rotting away, and cut out a piece of canvas that goes on the upper of the shoe. The Old canvas was really flimsy, so they added the new canvas to give more structure to these busted Jordan 1 Chicago’s. Vick stitched the bottom of the shoe where the new sole and midsole are going to go and Alex finished putting in the padding.
In the next phase of this restoration they used acetone on the uppers of the Chicago's to prep it for when they paint the shoe, that way it does not bleed onto the brand new bottoms. They then began to take the bottoms off of some donor shoes by taking out the stitching and pouring acetone into the shoe to help separate the sole from the uppers. They then put the new soles from the donor shoe into coffee and let them sit to give it an aged look because it just wouldn’t make sense to have a brand new white sole on a 38 year old shoe. Vick then replaces the tongue tag because the Chicago’s have a black tongue tag not a red, so it needed to be removed; while this was happening Alex used the dremel to clean up the soles while being careful to not remove the texture from the soles because it can make the bond between the soles and the upper weaker. Alex then heated up the heel cap to shape it to fit into the new sole and laid glue down to connect the new bottoms to the upper.