What shoes does Miles Morales wear?

Late one morning in mid-October, about a month before the release of the new video game Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales on the PlayStation 5, the official Twitter account of developer Insomniac Games sent a seemingly innocuous tweet. Alluding to a “mysterious masked vigilante” lately swinging around the high-rises of Manhattan, it included a picture of the “new Spider-Man,” Miles Morales, swooping through the air in a winter coat, red hoodie, black gym shorts, and a pair of high-top sneakers—in other words, almost exactly how the character was dressed in the hit 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. But there was one crucial distinction. Video-game Spidey was wearing the wrong sneakers.

Because in Into the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales very conspicuously wore Jordan 1s. More specifically, he wore Jordan 1 Retro Highs in the highly coveted “Chicago” colorway, a legendary grail among sneaker collectors and a hallmark of excellent taste. Slightly too large, and deliberately unlaced, they made an immediate, unforgettable impression—so much so that for many fans, the character and the shoe have become synonymous. The Miles Morales seen in Insomniac’s video game, though, isn’t wearing Jordans. He’s wearing a custom pair of red-and-black Adidas Superstars. And when fans found out, the response was...heated.

Miles's Adidas Superstars.

“The biggest downgrade of the century,” one fan replied. “He better go back in his closet and change that fit,” said another. The change had provoked the ire of just about every constituency: sneakerheads, comic-book fans, fashionistas, gamers. A video-game journalist wrote an editorial for Polygon in which she lamented the decision: “The Jordans make him Miles,” she argued, “and by extension, make him Spider-Man.” The website Comicbook.com reported on the move with distaste. A tweet from the sneaker feed Nice Kicks about the switch was met with a deluge of animosity and appalled reaction gifs. No one seemed pleased to see Miles in Adidas after getting to know him in Jordans. Or, as one particularly mad Twitter user put it, with perhaps a flourish of hyperbole: “They ruined the entire franchise. Spider-Man sucks. DC is better.”

For sneakerheads, this isn’t simply a problem of brand loyalty. Jordan 1s are the most consistently popular and sought-after shoes on the market, but there are other sneakers Miles might have donned in lieu of his Chicagos that might have been received more favorably: a pair of rare Dunks, maybe, or some Yeezys. Because while the Superstar has its own rich history—it's been made iconic a dozen times over and has been proudly worn by everyone from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Run-D.M.C.—the silhouette just doesn’t have cachet with collectors today, making it an unlikely wardrobe choice for a hip teen from Harlem, circa 2020.

“I just assumed it was a given that he would be wearing the Chicagos in the game,” explains David MacMullen, a sneakerhead and reseller who runs the secondhand retail shop We Got Grails. “It was just such a disappointment. Everyone likes that shoe and was hoping he would wear them.” David points out that when Nike released its special-edition Spider-Verse Jordan in honor of the movie, it was an enormous hit, and still sells for upwards of $1,100 on the resale market today. But when Adidas put out the red-and-black Superstar from the video game last month, David says, “no one cared.” It didn’t sell out; you can still buy them on the Adidas site right now. “I don’t think anybody saw that shoe in the game and thought, Yo, I can’t wait to get that,” he says.

Movie Miles and his Jordans.

But for the developers, creating a version of Miles Morales that felt unique was much more important than simply pleasing fans of the movie. Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse are both adaptations of the same comic-book source material, but they don’t necessarily have to overlap. “What we wanted to do was tell our own story, and it was really important that we stand on our own, rather than just make Into the Spider-Verse: The Video Game,” says Gavin Goulden, art director at Insomniac Games. “I’ve watched the movie a million times, but we didn’t draw direct inspiration from it. And when we did the outfits, we wanted to distinguish him. He’s our character.”

Tim Tsang, creative director at Marvel Games, says Marvel encouraged Insomniac to “chart their own path” and approach the character in a new way. “We love Into the Spider-Verse. It’s a fantastic movie,” he says. “But our north star is to look at the source material, which in this case is the comics. We believe that when you do that, and you put your own spin on it, that’s where you find the magic.” Tsang explains that the “new and fresh” look for Miles was still ultimately about looking hip. “You look at this character and you think, Dang, this guy has style,” he says.

The actual red-and-black Superstar was the brainchild of Frankie Perez, a concept artist for Marvel Games, and Eric Monacelli, director of production on Miles Morales and a Marvel Games project lead. They felt that Miles should have “clear hobbies and interests” as a character, and that his fashion choices should spring from what he loves, such as music.

It’s worth noting that for Monacelli, having Miles wear Adidas Superstars doesn’t necessarily mean he’s spurned his Jordan 1s. “The Superstar is a classic, iconic silhouette made lasting and timeless in NYC fashion via hip-hop and rap communities. The Air Jordan 1 is a classic, iconic silhouette made ultra-popular by a sports megastar,” he says. “Like any sneakerhead, Miles would be keeping up with multiple brands and have multiple silhouettes in his closet for the various fits he’d want to wear.” This seems like the most plausible explanation for why a character known for donning one iconic sneaker might be seen wearing a different brand: It’s all part of the rotation. Right now he’s wearing Superstars. Tomorrow he may be in Jordans once more.

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