A Conversation with Jason Mayden

Nice Kicks caught up with Jordan Brand Senior Footwear Designer Jason Mayden, designer of both the Air Jordan 2009 and the Jordan CP3.II, to this Chicago native what it was like designing the flagship Air Jordan shoe as well as the Chris Paul line among other things.?? Find out what lent inspirtation for the new CP3.II and what keeps this busy man going.

Click here to read our conversation with Jason Mayden.

How did you find out that you would be taking on the Air Jordan flagship model?

Jason Mayden – Jordan Brand: The day started just like any other day, but D’Wayne [Edwards] calls me into his office towards the end of the day and shuts the door and sits me down and starts asking me a few questions.?? D’Wayne is a pretty quiet guy, so when he starts talking, you start to wonder if you are in trouble.?? He said that he liked what I was doing and wanted to see if I was interested in doing what I dreamed about which was designing an Air Jordan.?? At first I thought that he was joking.?? I thought that this couldn’t be real, but then he confirmed to me that it was.?? I found out about this just before Christmas in 2007 so I started working on concepts and designs over the break and in early 2008.

You weren’t going to say ‘no’ to working on that project?

Jason Mayden: [laughs] No, no, no.?? I don’t care if they asked me just to design the outsole, I would still say yes.

What was your reaction like when you heard that you would be designing the Air Jordan 2009?

Jason Mayden: It was a combination of relief that I was finally able to live my dream, but at the same time, that relief went away instantly and felt, “ok, now I have to get to work.”?? I felt the pressure of needing to live up to standards set by the previous people who designed the shoe.

Shifting gears towards Chris Paul, when did you first get the chance to meet Chris?

Jason Mayden: I first met Chris in early 2006 when he was just about to come over to Jordan Brand from Nike and so there were a bunch of presentations going on and people were trying to get to know who Chris Paul really was as a person and an athlete and how he fit into the overall structure of the brand.?? I had the fortune of working with Micha Cooper who formally worked with Chris at Nike Basketball and she gave me the heads up on how he was as a person and how he was as a family member because he always travels with his family.?? So I kind of knew going in that we had some of the similar values.?? A majority of the people in Jordan Brand have the same family values so we get along with Chris great.?? The first time I met him was actually the first time that I got to present to him and show him some initial kinds of concepts of what his first shoe could be and we sat down with his mom and dad there, his brother and business manager CJ, and I showed him a pictorial book of my life from when I was a kid in Chicago growing up to getting in Jordan Brand.?? I wanted to show to him that my family was just as important with me as it was to him and from that moment forward, we just hit it off and to this day we continue to have a great dialogue.

What do you think Chris brings to Jordan Brand that sets him apart from his peers in the league?

Jason Mayden: Chris is the soul of the brand.?? He is the guy that people counted out because of his size, but he has the willingness to try and push himself forward.?? He’s grounded, down to earth, and reminds us of that Hometown Hero.?? The whole idea of dreaming bigger things while shooting a jumpshot in your driveway – that’s Chris.?? I would say that Chris is simply that youthful childhood ambition of hitting the game winning shot brought to life.

For the first Jordan CP3 you probably had to work on some designs and concepts before working with Chris.

Jason Mayden: Yes.

How was the process different for the Jordan CP3.II from the original CP3?

Jason Mayden: Well the original CP3, alot of it was research based.?? It was almost like I had to study a subject that I didn’t have a personal connection with, so I had to study him very objectively.?? I broke his life down to the struggle of New Orleans.?? At the time we were still in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and there was alot of emotions that were flying high around the city while it was being rebuilt.?? So one of the things that I wanted to do was to tell a story of New Orleans that the average consumer might not know about.?? Everybody knows about Mardi Gras, but few knew about the Mardi Gras Indians and what the history of that meant to the city of New Orleans.?? So I wanted to take a soulful approach with that one and tie that back to Chris’ story and where he came from in Winston-Salem and his granddad and all of the things that he had to overcome as a person.

Going into the CP3.II, the first time we sat down to discuss this shoe we were actually in Phoenix when they were playing the Suns.?? In his hotel room was Chris, his trainer, equipment manager from the Hornets, and a few team members of the Hornets and this conversation was totally different because we just started talking about the sneaker industry.?? Chris is a huge sneaker fan.?? He’s always looking at Nice Kicks and other sites and we just talked about the industry and where he wanted to take his shoe.?? How he wanted to ‘zig’ when everyone else ‘zags’ and when he said that comment, it reminded me so much of how MJ thinks.?? From the onset of this project, Chris?? was aware of what the industry was doing.?? The athletes usually see each other’s shoes way before the consumers do, so he knew what Kobe was doing, he knew what LeBron was doing, and he wanted to go in a totally different direction, but at the same time he still understands that this is a business and that our shoes have to be stable and compliment, not compete with other Nike, Inc. products.?????? So he was very adamant about doing something different, something fun and fresh, and really attacking a youth angle because he studies the game and industry just as much as he knows the basketball game.

What sort of research do you do so that it has custom performance features made for Chris?

Jason Mayden: We go to the Nike Sports Research Lab and look at high speed video of how people cut in the shoe.?? We have a lot of great testers who play Division 1 basketball, so they may not be Chris Paul level, but they are definitely better than average.?? We look at how they cut in the video.?? Also look at game footage of Chris and how he plays the game.?? We also look at game worn shoes that Chris has beat up and we see where they are wearing out and where they are breaking down.?? So our research is a combination of controlled testing in the lab environment and then completely random testing in the NBA environment where you don’t know what is going to happen in a game at any given moment.?? So coming out of the first CP3 we knew that there were certain things going on in the midfoot area that we wanted to eliminate with the shank.?? So we wanted to sculpt it up alot more and ease the heel to toe transition to make it faster.

What kind of challenges does it create to make a shoe that is for Chris Paul, but is one that works for the average consumer?

Jason Mayden: Overall I think its pretty easy because Chris isn’t an abnormally tall or big person.?? He’s not 6-10, 220 lbs.?? Chris is an average height guy who just has phenomenal athletic abilities.?? When we design our shoes for Chris, we design it for the everyday athlete – Chris just uses them in a different way.?? Anyone could drive a Ferrari, but there are only certain people that know how to drive a Ferrari the way that it’s meant to be driven.?? We design our shoes like Ferraris and its up to the person wearing the shoes to activate and utilize the technologies that are in the shoes.

Was Chris very active with the design and development of the CP3.II?

Jason Mayden: Extremely active.?? I actually set up Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop on his computer for him so he was sending me color combinations, ideas on the height of the shoe and different materials to use.?? He was extremely involved in the design process.?? We were in contact at least every couple of weeks whether it was through text messages or email.?? The two of us really have a great dialogue.?? Even if he has 100% of his time focussed on basketball, he will send a few questions through his brother CJ and we will communicate that way.?? But we are always emailing or texting back and forth what we can do to improve his shoes.

The CP3.II has an interesting inspiration from the game of Futsal.?? How did that sport inspire the shoes?

Jason Mayden: One of the things we wanted to do going into 2009 was to shift the paradigm of what a basketball shoe can be.?? We looked at different sports that use footwork as an emphasis for defense for the Air Jordan 2009.?? Already being in that mindset of comparing and contrasting two different worlds and finding that intersection between both of those, I wanted to look at a game that was more fast paced?? than basketball.?? That was more technical, that required more skill to perform.?? The way that Chris moves on the court is very much like a motorcycle amongst cars, so it’s really hard to compare him to other basketball athletes – he’s not like the rest of them.?? So I looked at the game of Futsal which is 5 on 5 indoor soccer that uses a smaller ball and is a really fast paced game and the skill level required is that of outdoor basketball.?? And that’s what they say about Chris, that his style of play is like controlled playground basketball when he’s on the court.?? So what we did is we identified a person in the world of Futsal who plays the game, has the attitude, his looks, and even his importance of family was thoroughly similar to CP.???? The technical aspects of the game are extremely similar to basketball.?? The game is played with 5 players per side, the footwork needed to play Futsal is the footwork needed to be a dominant point-guard.?? We looked at how the shoes for Futsal functioned from heel to toe, we looked at the weight, the way the shoes were being supported on the foot, materials that they used to make the shoes lighter and more durable, and how the shoe was constructed.?? The CP3.II doesn’t look like a Futsal shoe, but the shoe features all of the essentials that go into a pair designed for Futsal.

Something that I noticed immediately on the CP3.II was a new material that went around the ankle.?? Tell me about this product NuFoam.?? Has it been used on other Jordan products before??? And what does the pattern represent?

Jason Mayden: We have used similar versions of NuFoam, but not this technical version of it.?? It has been used on ankle sleeves and compression products, but this particular one was strategically designed for CP to be lightweight, breathable, and structural.???? Alot of those properties are not as important when it is used to make an arm sleeve or ankle sleeve, but when it was built into the upper of the shoe, it had to be specifically engineered to function to Chris’ standards.

The pattern of the NuFoam is made to represent a chain-link fence tying back to outdoor basketball and Futsal.?? Both sports are professionally played indoors, but are very often played outside on a court surrounded by a chain-link fence.

You now have two major projects to take care of with the Chris Paul line as well as the Air Jordan line.?? What keeps you going?

Jason Mayden: You know, what keeps me going is that there are kids out there that are going to give up on their dreams before they even realize it and if they could see someone who is living their dream, doing a good?? job, doing it the right way, it might inspire them to continue on whatever it is that they set out to do.?? Whether it be a shoe designer, doctor, lawyer, politician, or elementary school teacher, they need an example outside of entertainers and athletes.?? Myself, Reggie Saunders, Dale Allen, Terri Hines, always want kids to know that you don’t have to always be the person in front of the camera to live a good life.?? You can be happy and do the things you want to do and definitely be a good person.???? So giving back and letting kids know they can achieve what ever they want to do is what keeps me going.