Carmelo Anthony returned home this past NBA season and joined Amar'e Stoudemire and the New York Knicks. This season would have been Melo's first full year with the Knicks, but the NBA lockout has prevented his plans of winning an NBA championship (for now). During the past few weeks, Melo has been promoting his new Jordan Melo M8 signature and we sat down with him to discuss his favorite signatures from the Melo line and to get some insight on the design behind the Melo M8 at Flight Lab 159 — a space that took its design cues from Melo both on and off the court and featured a visual representation of Melo’s speed, power and explosiveness, which are brought to life in the Brand’s “Explosive” silo, which the MELO M8 is the footwear lead.
How psyched are you to have your signatures in the Knicks colorway?
It’s dope, I’ve been dealing with Carolina Blue, and White, and Gold for a long long time, so to switch the colors up and actually right now have a chance to do a lot more with the colorways is that much more fun for me.
Did you feel pressure to make the M8 lighter to compete with the other signatures like the Kobe, The Rose 2?
That came into play, that was some conversation I had. And the way that I was trying to change my game to be quicker and lighter and more agile —
The most important thing to me was to try and get as light as we can with the materials that we’re using, and still make it look good.
Did you get any inspirations from any other sneakers or designs for the M8?
No, this one was, I really wanted to do a patent leather shoe. I think this was the one that I had the chance to do especially that the way we designed it and the way that its shaped, you can patch different colors in, in different places and to use the Foamposite and the Flywire at the same time, that’s crazy.
Whose idea was it to add "Born in Brooklyn, Manufactured in Baltimore"?
That was mine, we were trying to come up with some slogans, some stuff that sticks some wording that sticks. And that right there was perfect for me.
Who do you think has the best signature between you Chris Paul and D. Wade?
I’ve gotta go with myself. I’ve been doing this for a long time, man.
What’s your favorite thing about the M8?
I just think the Flywire, the chrome patent leather we did on the blue one. The Zoom Air, the double Zoom Air bag that you can see, but you cant see. I think that’s what really makes the back part of that shoe. You see it, you be like “Jordans really do have air bubbles" and stuff like that.
How disappointed will you be if you cant wear the M8 this season?
I’ll be disappointed — if I can’t wear them on the court I’ll be disappointed. But I wear them every day, so I’ll be good.
