Jordan 3 Retro Black Cat

While many would complain about the quality of the mid-to-late 2000s releases, the 2007 Air Jordan 3 “Black Cat” is one that many collectors would pick up again if given the chance. Inspired by Michael Jordan’s nickname, the Black Cat 3 was a panther-shaped colorway of the classic Air Jordan sneaker. MJ’s nature of attacking opponents relentlessly earned him the nickname “Black Cat” which was stitched underneath the heel tab of this black colorway. While the official colorway was Black/Dark Charcoal-Black, nicknames for these AJ3s started out as “Blackout 3s” and “Triple Black” Jordan 3s on message boards like ISS and NikeTalk. While the colors were basically all the same, the different materials and finishes made this colorway much better than a simple all-black Jordan 3. A nubuck material was used on the upper and then accented with a patent leather strip between the toe box outline and the elephant-print heel. While the originals had Nike Air on the heel, these Air Jordan 3s featured the Jumpman logo with the word Air written underneath, which at the time wasn’t much of a concern for most sneakerheads. The BC3s also introduced elephant-print laces to the mainstream consumer. The Air Jordan 3 “Black Cat” may seem like a basic sneaker design, but that’s beauty in itself, when it comes to Tinker Hatfield’s classic Jordan 3 design.