As sneakerheads, the natural tendency is to glorify the past releases but when it comes to the Air Jordan 3 Retro "True Blue" from 2001, all praise is due. As one of the original colorways of the Air Jordan 3 designed by Tinker Hatfield, the True Blue 3 has a dedicated amount of followers that reach back to the 1988 days of Michael Jordan flying from the free throw line to win the NBA Slam Dunk Contest. But unlike the Black Cement or White Cement colorways, the Jordan 3 Retro "True Blue" stayed locked away in Nike’s archives during MJ’s first retirement. And that means people were ready and willing to purchase the True Blues when they finally re-released in 2001. Of course, times were much different back then. It was meets, not conventions. And there was no Twitter, no Facebook groups, no sneaker blogs over-informing everyone of release dates. In fact, usually someone would happen upon a new release and then upload a picture to NikeTalk and that would get the nostalgic vibes buzzing around the sneaker community. Even with the spread through NT and ISS, the 2001 Air Jordan True Blue was easily attainable within about a month or so from its release date and if you were one of the people that picked up a pair, you went home completely satisfied to relive a bit of history even if it had the Jumpman on the heel for the first time. Of course MJ and Kobe Bryant both wore the 2001 Air Jordan 3 "True Blue" on court, so obviously the Jumpman didn't bother them.