Concept Lab // Air Jordan 6 “Olympic Alternate”

It’s Olympic season, and that means one thing: Air Jordan PEs. And while the player-exclusive Air Jordan 36 colorways for Luke, Rui, Jayson, Kia, and Guo Ailun are cool and all, quite frankly, they’re not retros. Given the advancements in technology, it’s no surprise that hoopers don’t ball in throwback jawns as often as they used to (outside of PJ Tucker, of course) so it’s unlikely that we’ll see some new Olympic retros as we look to Paris 2024 and beyond. It’s not entirely out of the question, though, given both Jordan Brand’s connection to the City of Love and the fact that we received an Alternate Olympic Air Jordan 7 back in 2016. And then there’s the Miro 7s, of course. We also got a Beijing Air Jordan 6 back in 2008 — so it’s possible. Of course, we’ve taken to the LAb to explore that possibility, delivering a conceptual Air Jordan 6 “Olympic Alternate” to get the juices flowing.

Given that the Seven has already seen an alternate edition, it would make a little bit of sense to deliver a Six, too. Right? The original Air Jordan 6 ‘Olympic’ was first debuted by NBA stars Ray Allen and Vin Baker as they won gold for Team USA at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Mere months later, the pair was released at retailers. The sneakers retroed in 2012 to commemorate the London Olympic Games, though they did arrive with color block variations to the midsole. For this speculative pair, we’ve done even further work to the sole unit by murdering it to in navy, and popping in traditional Infrared, opting for a dark Varsity Red instead. The silhouette’s lack of gold — a frequent feature of Olympic footwear — has been rectified through the added heel and shroud detail, as well as an added geometric Jumpman tag that represents the angles of the Eifell Tower. With all of that going on, a decision was made to revert the upper to a simple all-white finish to complete the design.

With three years until the next Olympiad, we can only hope that Jordan Brand starts laying out plans for a special release — and something close to this wouldn’t go astray. Would a new Olympic-themed Retro be something that’ you’d like to see released? Tell us your thoughts via our contact form!

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Air Jordan 6 “Olympic Alternate”

From the HOUSE OF HEAT Concept Lab