23. Sneaks and Kicks

 ‘Space Jam’ Movie 1996, Starring Michael Jordan and       

                          Bugs Bunny 

The most popular shoe in the popular culture. Popularised by Michael Jordan himself. He wore them as a rookie in 1984 in the NBA. It became instantly famous for going against the colour regulations which stated that sneakers have to be at least a majority of white colourations and had to match team uniform colours. The Air Jordan was introduced in 1985 by Nike, made in collaboration with Michael Jordan himself, designed by Peter Moore. The first ever model was dubbed Air Jordan 1, which sported a majority of Black and Red colours, to match the colour of the Chicago Bulls uniform, the team Jordan was playing for at the time. Nike was issued a $ 5,000 fine for every game, Michael wore the black and red Air Jordans 1. 

A sneaker head is someone who collects sneakers, with a passion for it and a intuition of the history of the shoes. The Air Jordan line of sneakers is one of those sneaker which changed the game and the culture for the better, without flaws and drawbacks.

These sneakers line were further popularised by many celebrities. Actors, rappers, singers alike. 

                              

                                       Tom Cruise in the Jordan 11 ‘DMP’

                                        The Backstreet Boys with Jordans 

It became a dream for every sneaker head to include these sneakers in their collection. 

Retro Air Jordan shoes are introduced that were the classic remake of the Air Jordans that Michael wore back in the day, slightly modified to match with the current trends. As a part of the 23 year celebrations, the Jordan brands started a multi year campaign ‘fusing’ the Air Force 1 with Air Jordans creating the Air Jordan Fusions.

        

          Below is a look at each and every pair of Air Jordan shoes released by Nike, a total of 26 in all (not counting variations). Next to each pair is Nike's motto for the shoe and the year in which they debuted.

Air Jordan I "Notorious" 1984-85

Air Jordan II "Italian Stalion" 1987

Air Jordan III “Gotta Be The Shoes” 1988

Air Jordan IV “Taking Flight” 1989

Air Jordan V “The Fighter” 1990

Air Jordan VI “Promised Land” 1991

Air Jordan VII “Pure Gold” 1992

Air Jordan VIII “Strap In” 1993

Air Jordan IX “Perfect Harmony” 1994

Air Jordan X “The Legacy Continues” 1995

Air Jordan XI “Class Act” 1996

Air Jordan XII “The Dynasty Continues” 1997

Air Jordan XIII “Black Cat Pounces” 1998

Air Jordan XIV “Race Ready” 1999

Air Jordan XV “Speed of Sound” 2000

Air Jordan XVI “Marching On” 2001

Air Jordan XVII “Jazzed Up” 2002

Air Jordan XVIII “Last Dance” 2003

Air Jordan XIX “Full Flex” 2004

Air Jordan XX “Living Greatness” 2005

Air Jordan XXI “Performance Luxury DNA” 2006

Air Jordan XXII “Hit the Afterburners” 2007

Air Jordan XXIII “The Number of Greatness” 2008 

Air Jordan 2009 “Beyond” 2009

Air Jordan 2010 “Full Speed Ahead” 2010

Air Jordan 2011 2011

Air Jordan 2012 “Choose Your Flight” 2012

Air Jordan XXVIII “Dare to Fly” 2013

      Michael not only wanted his shoes to be famous on the court, but off it as well. The first Air Jordan to employ this philosophy was the Air Jordan III. Co-Designed by Tinker Hatfield along with Michael in 1988, this Air Jordan is famous for implementing elephant print on a basketball shoe, as well the first Air Jordan to have the, famous Jumpman logo and a visible air unit. This style of design made it so that the Air Jordan would be seen as a shoe that you can wear while playing ball, but also as casual dress wear for the urban kid or teen. This design process would evolve with every new Air Jordan released every season. This always ensured that Air Jordans would always remain in style, as they still do to this day. 

The high price tag made the desired shoes out of reach for the low income kids that craved them the most. Thus Air Jordans became subject to violence and crime. Around the U.S., reports would come in of kids getting robbed and killed for their Air Jordans. Today, even campouts at Air Jordan release days are dangerous things to attend, forcing stores to employ raffle systems and other means to control crowds of consumers who want to get their hands on the latest Air Jordan. Violence wasn’t the only thing to come out of the growing popularity of these sneakers however. In the more recent years, reselling became popular as Air Jordans became harder and harder to get due to the exclusivity and somewhat limited numbers for some pairs. Resellers are usually looked down upon in the sneaker community as they buy Sneakers by the bulk for retail and resell for double and even triple the original cost. Jordans are the most common sneakers resold due to the reasons mentioned above, and some even say the reason why resellers appeared in the culture. This made it near impossible for true sneakerheads to obtain a pair they wanted unless they got lucky and were able to get theirs for retail. Even though Air Jordans have made negative impacts on the culture, measures are being taken by the community to ensure that these problems are being noticed and hopefully acted upon.

Relapsed

         The North Eastern part of India, due to its topographical features, stays as a land-locked region from the mainland. From time immemorial, the region is also misaligned with daily cycle of the sunlight. Indeed we live a lifestyle different from the mainland. The economic status of this region is also mediocre when compared with other parts of India.

         We also always feel a sense of alienation, living in a different world, calling them foreigners in our own words. The problem of adjusting to the distant relative's lifestyles has always been prevailing. This difference is still not solved by any of the reforms, from the ever changing Indian policy making.

       Similar big countries like the USA, Russia, Australia have more than a single time zone and some of them follow daylight savings, notably the US. They adjust their clock either back or forth based on the climate, in a bid to save more energy by synchronising the time standards with the cycle of the sunlight. China and India happened to be the only two countries in the world that is following a single time zone despite their respective geographical sizes. China being a communist country, it is politically perfect to follow a single time zone to ease the high command.

         A crucial factor in which the rate of productivity of an economy depend is the period of working hours. Two scientist from National Institute Of Advance Studies, Bangalore had already proposed advancing the clock to 30 minutes forward at +6 GMT, predicting that it could save India of 2.7 billion units of electricity annually as the citizens will rely on energy for a lesser time and depend more on the solar energy from the sun. This advancement can also make us more attuned to the biological clock, if we happened to sleep and wake at the same time as before. The advancement will make our sleep cycle more harmonious to the daily cycle of the sunshine.

        It also reported of the 'Twin Burden' of very early summer sunrise and very early winter sunsets in the North-Eastern part of the country. Social benefits were even cited, with this proposal in advancement of time. However, the proposal for a twin time zone was scrapped citing possible difficulties in the operation of airline, railway and communication services.

      The current Chief Minister of Assam, Tarun Gogoi has announced that Assam will start to follow a time zone different than the Indian Standard Time zone of +5.30 GMT. India's second time zone will be one hour ahead of its first one, to +6.30 GMT. He a stated that this could increase the productivity in the state and ease the tea gardeners of the the famous, Assam Tea. The gardeners have to plan their harvest accordingly with the daily cycle of the sun. This change will translate into more yield and help boost the economy of the state.

        Nevertheless, the tea gardeners of Assam had been following a 'Tea Garden Time', at +6.30 GMT, introduced during the British's times. They work from 9 to 5, Dolly Parton could not get the lyrics, which, roughly translates to 8 to 4 in the Indian Standard Time. It's been followed before independence in this part of the country owing to the early sunrise in this part of the country.

      Daylight Saving Time (DST), usually referred to as summer time in the United Kingdom is the practice of advancing clocks during the lighter months so that evenings have more apparent daylight and mornings have less. Typically clocks are adjusted forward one hour near the start of spring and are adjusted backward in the autumn.

        Since independence the North-eastern region of India had been suffering from huge productivity losses due the difference in the sunrise and sunset in this part of the country and the mainland. This is problem will go profound and still persist until a plan is chalked out for a solution. Loss of 27 years and 11 months since independence is not a small number to be ignored on pen and paper.

      In the generation's search for renewable energy and strict measures followed everywhere in the planet to reduce and conserve energy, this huge potential to save tremendous amount of energy should not be let gone in vain and must be tapped. The poor economic status and main dependence on agriculture for livelihood in the North-eastern states of India is a great reason for this part of the country to adjust the time zone and make it more aligned with the cycle of the sun. Jokes apart, maybe we could go ahead in time in this race for never ending growth and productivity.

        With India's western and eastern borders stretching to some 2000 km apart each other, India could well have three time zones. Originally in 1884, two time zones, Bombay Time, +4.51 GMT and Calcutta time, +5.30:21 GMT were introduced. In 1905, during the colonial times, a uniform time zone based on Allahabad at +5.30 GMT was later introduced, for a uniformity in the railways system. The big cities in British India followed their own time zones. However to avoid confusion the railways companies decided to follow one time zone, called the Madras time zone and the government followed both Bombay time and Calcutta time.

          The railway signals are not fully automated and many routes have single track. Resetting the clock at each crossing of the time zone, will lead to confusion. The trains may meet with major accidents owing to human errors. To solve this, the railways department in the country can alter the time zone they follow and popularised a different time zone, like the Madras Time Zone, as they did before independence. The reason being the location of Madras, which mid way between location of Bombay and Calcutta, in the layout of the country's map. Recently, a fresh proposal to shift the IST reference from 82.5 degrees East longitude near Allahabad to 90 degrees East near the Assam-Bengal border resurrected a two-decade old debate in India's policy making circles.

          India has a large population, and it covers a large boundary. Undoubtedly the biggest democracy, the center has indeed a humongous work load and time factor in maintaining the country. Considerably, the center has kept up with this huge task to maintain the large population, so that the citizen can enjoy the reform, with a pride of republic. A sense where the citizen has the freedom to express their motions and notions.

          A solution to this compensate this difference in time zone could really be a gift to the North – Eastern India, this republic day. This could reward to bridge the gap between the developed and developing regions of the country. Additionally counting the blessing to the underdeveloped North-Eastern region of our country, so that this underdeveloped region of the country can exploit more of the untapped potentials and resources and look beyond the conventional ideas of increasing the production of the economy.