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Another year, another Father’s Day is in the books. If you took dad out to lunch or dinner yesterday then chances are you saw some other dads out and about, and I’m willing to wager there was at least one dad rocking the Nike Air Monarch II sneakers. If you didn’t see the Air Monarch II sneakers out on the town then there’s a decent chance you saw them while you were cruising around town and dads were mowing the lawn or running errands.
Over time, the Air Monarch II sneakers have taken on a legendary reputation. There have been countless memes along the lines of ‘if your dad doesn’t wear these while grilling, do you even have a dad?’ You can say the words ‘dad shoes‘ and know exactly what someone is referring to. But how did that all happen? Well, Jason Mayden is a former Brand Director at the Jordan Brand and the founder of Super Heroic, and he’s the man to thank for bringing the Air Monarch II shoes to the world. Here, he tells the story of how those came to be:
What I don’t fully understand here is this: if you wanted to launch your career by launching a shoe for dads based on comfort, why were you at the Jordan Brand? He could’ve done this at New Balance, Asics, Reebok, K Swiss, and countless other shoe brands but he was trying to create a dad shoe at the Jordan Brand? It’s a nice story, but it seems like there’s more to it.