Jan. 10, 2008 - Air Jordan's signature red and black is getting greener. Now in its twenty-third iteration, Nike's iconic sports shoe has been redesigned to reduce waste and source environmentally preferable materials wherever possible.

The Air Jordan XX3relies on an innovative stitching system that holds the shoe together with a minimum of adhesives and glues. The design change required creating new machines to manufacture the product.

"We pissed off a lot of people at the factory because this wasn't business as usual," Nike VP Tinker Hatfield tells BrandWeek. However, he predicts that "within six months, you'll see other [basketball shoe] companies following our lead."

Nike is enjoying positive press for the AJXX3's green innovation, but sustainable design features are unlikely to sway consumers, according to Gentry Humphrey, director of Brand Jordan. "Most kids aren't buying a $185 shoe because it's sustainable," he tells The Oregonian. (In fact, the AJXX3 clocks in at $230 25% more than past Air Jordan designs.)

The Air Jordan XX3 is Nike's second athletic shoe to be created under its Nike Considered green-design guidelines. The company's Humara trail shoe pioneered the program.