Restoring one of the most iconic sneakers of all time with the one and only @Flippinkickz ! The 1985 Black Toe Jordan 1 is one of the rarest and most sought after sneakers in the game, but there are next to no "wearable" pairs. In today's Restorations with Vick Almighty him and Flippin Kickz will walk you through the first sneaker restoration on this iconic pair! This complete restoration was a couple days of work, but it was well worth it to make this 38 year old pair of sneakers wearable again.
This specific pair was absolutely trashed from the inside out, so although it sounds like a couple steps; this was a HUGE process. We started with deconstruction before moving into the reconstruction. For the first step we needed to remove the original sole by removing the stitching and using a mechanical pick to take the entire outsole off the uppers. Now this outsole had close to no grip and was not in great condition... The only thing it had going for it was the flexibility was still there, which isn't something you see on all 85's.
Once the sole was off we discovered a lot of disintegrated polyurethane from the air unit. It is incredibly rare to find an air unit in tact; especially on a pair of OG's! Once the sole was off it was time to do some more prep work on the uppers to remove the old glue. Once the outside was all prepped it was time to move onto the interior of the sneaker.
For this step we needed to open up the interior sock liner and the entire shoe to see the condition of the shoes. The interior was in much worse condition than we originally thought once they got inside of the original sock liner. Ultimately we would need to replace the inner lining to make this sneaker wearable once again. With the shoe deconstructed, we needed to take care of a quick cleaning on the uppers! For the cleaning we relied on RESHOEVN8R'S products to remove the dust, grime and oils that the sneaker has collected since 85.
One benefit of RESHOEVN8R's Solution is it not only breaks down the grime, but it conditions the materials as you clean. Plus the brushes and natural solution are delicate enough to use on even the most fragile pairs. With the cleaning out of the way these two masterminds needed to allow the sneaker to dry, but during the drying process it was really important to reshape the sneaker.
This sneaker was fairly misshapen and crushed in some areas, so it was going to take some work to get it to look right! The main issue is the crushed heel counter, so we need to replace that to give the sneaker the shape that we all know and love. We also had to remove the creasing using the iron method from all the way around the shoe. This made the sneaker look a little better, but with 30 year old creases it isn't perfect!
The reconstruction process was a lot of steps! Did you have any idea how many steps were needed to make a pair wearable again?! We are making process though... The donor soles are prepped and aged. The paint job is in the works and we only have a couple more steps to wrap this up. The HARDEST part of this might have been repairing the wings logo, but you know Alex killed that paint job.
Let's keep it moving, it is time to stitch it all up and secure everything that we have put into the shoe. Plus we needed to repair any stitching that has faded away. The tongue tags were one of the final details needed. Shout out to Alex for sacrificing his own pair to give this project the love they needed. Now we needed to put the sneaker back together with the new soles to make this 1985 Black Toe Jordan 1 fully wearable again!
This restoration took days, but they are now FULLY wearable! Plus Vick and Alex did the best they could to keep this sneaker as original as possible. Now with all that being said.. What was your favorite part of the entire restoration?!
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