When news broke back in mid-September that His Royal Airness Michael Jordan was throwing Jordan brand's support behind the only African American driver in NASCAR’s top division, Bubba Wallace, I was hype. Hype enough even to write about it––this is my first article ever. Not because I’m a diehard NASCAR fan necessarily, or because of a vested interest in the social implications of Bubba’s success. Although I do wish him the best, and NASCAR needs its own Lewis Hamilton-type figure in its ranks. Rather, this is me being materialistic. I’m excited about the Merch!

While the automobile may have drifted away from its once central role in american life, the Jordan X NASCAR relationship follows the slow spread of motorsports & niche car culture outside the nucleus of their core respective communities. In the past two years alone we’ve seen partnerships between Supreme X Lamborghini, Aime X Porsche, whatever we’re calling Virgil’s creation with Mercedes Benz ed. note: a Kia Soul, and most recently Kith’s outstanding work with BMW. Each has served to re-highlight the automotive industry's proximity to luxury fashion.

While this new found love makes me smile as a car enthusiast, by and large the executions have left me longing for more. Below the surface they’re all aesthetic cash grabs that could have instead created more enduring, functional products for the genre. Jordan too is guilty of this, as seen in the Jordan Motorsport 4’s and 6's.

In the past we’ve seen the driving shoe gain mass appeal bordering on ubiquity only to be clowned for being synonymous with Euro trash culture. Do you remember the Pumas with the Goodyear sole? Or the Puma Ferraris? Yeah some of us actually thought they were cool (the suede ones) but I get it, people struggle with ideas they don’t understand and can’t relate to. I wonder if they would have had the same fate if they were Nikes with an athlete of Lebron’s stature attached to them.

In any case working with Bubba Wallace could give Jordan the perfect opportunity to take inspiration from the creation of the Jordan 3, which is when Jordan actually started liking his shoes, when Tinker Hatfield started designing (he was going to leave Nike after Bruce Kilgore’s Jordan 2), and when the relationship between athlete and brand became three-dimensional and expanded credibly into lifestyle products. That’s when Nike really started designing and working closely with the athlete, to create pieces that walked the line of functional performance and style for everyday life. Likewise in the case of motorsports there’s potential for so much more than shoes––think gloves, clothing, seats, safety harnesses, helmets, the list is deep.

Looking back, the DNA of performance driving shoes has changed considerably. In the decades post-WWII, drivers wheeled their machines in pleated trousers, polo shirts and wingtips. Much like those machines, the apparel drivers wore represented advancement through failure, in this case injury or loss of life. As time passed and safety became a priority, drivers donned overalls, helmets, gloves and leather footwear with soft-soles. As the 80’s rolled around the Adidas Monza (named for the Italian circuit) were the standard shoe of choice. As with most sports, designers learned that comfort equals performance, resulting in light, heat resistant shoes built to maintain a driver’s tactical connection to their pedals as they hustled cars through corners. Nike had no presence in the sport, but you could find the odd champion rocking a pair of “checks over stripes” as they chased glory.

It wasn’t until the mid 90’s that Nike began to turn its attention to the needs of racecar drivers. In 1995 they signed the German Formula 1 legend Micheal Schuacher and let him design his own shoes to meet the demands of a modern F1 cockpit. They were fire too. Unfortunately their partnership never yielded a championship together and “Schumi” would switch to Fila, via it’s partnership with Ferrari at the time. Around the same period in America, Nike inked a deal with the “Man in Black,” seven-time Nascar Cup champion Dale Earnhardt. By the mid-2000s the initiative reached its zenith as they signed more NASCAR and Indy car drivers and dabbled with other motorsport disciplines. But slowly it all fizzled out. You would be hard pressed to find any ads featuring the shoes or their athletes during the era. (Look at them, can you imagine any of them in the JUST DO IT spots?) Moreover we never saw these partnerships cross over to the mainstream.

2011 marked Jordan Brand’s first foray into NASCAR, when it, quite randomly, endorsed future champion and 23XI motorsport co-owner Denny Hamlin. Although this relationship has birthed many player-exclusive driving shoes for Denny, we’ve seen no products released to the general public. A quick search of his and Jordan's online store shows there’s not a single branded item on offer, not even an iconic NASCAR jacket. What a fucking fail.

I have no clue what the future holds, but we can make some reasonable predictions about this Bubba/Nike partnership. Around the time Bubba starts preparing for 2021’s Daytona 500, Nike’s dot com and SNKRS app will be flooded with a selection of Bubba Wallace merch from tees emblazoned with illustrations of his #23 Toyota Camry, to sneakers (I bet there’s already a pair of the Ferrari-inspired Jordan 14s on a mood board at Jordan HQ). If the partnership is successful, we could even see him have a bespoke collection similar to what Lewis Hamilton and Tommy Hilfiger are doing.

We all know Nike/Jordan are at the tip of spear when we talk about innovation in sport and fashion. When discussing design philosophy David Creech, VP of Design for Jordan brand, said, “It’s about designing for the future––extrapolating from the core Jordan brand DNA along with an innovation and function-first approach.” If this is to be believed, the folks at Jordan could look at Dainese (pronounce “die-yuh-NAY-say”) as a roadmap for the trajectory of this endeavor.

The Italian maker of protective equipment and technical gear for motorcycling, and a range of the dynamic sports, uses all of the information collected on the track to innovate its products. And from the D-Air Line, the world's first air-bag collection of riding suits, to their range of boots, gloves and other accessories, for MOTOGP champions and plebs like you and I.

We’ll have to wait and see where Nike takes things but it’s my hope for car enthusiasts that they don’t overlook the real opportunity that lies beneath. This venture further into NASCAR and endorsement of motorsport as a whole needs to reflect their ethos for innovation as they carve out future products. I want to see the Jordan/Nike design departments delve deep into the niche, understand it, and use the audacious athleticism required to win races and championships as a source for innovating and elevating their products. Give us functional items that don't just “colorway” us to death with existing basketball specific products. Put the driving experience at the center of what you make and let the consumers decide if they’re dope or not. At least re-release some Schumis! Nike’s made motorsport heat before––the track is wide open for them to do it again.