Last September, to mark Mexican Independence Day, Jordan Brand dropped one of 2024’s finest sneakers: the Air Jordan 5 ‘El Grito,’ a thoughtful homage to the rallying cry that kickstarted Mexico’s fight for liberation from colonial rule. Now, a year later, Jordan is dropping an equally covetable pair of kicks to honor Día de la Independencia—and this time, they’re paying tribute to the beloved tradition of lucha libre (much like the recent Brain Dead x Adidas Japan before it) with the Air Jordan 3 ‘El Vuelo.’
Lucha libre, of course, is the centuries-old form of pro wrestling built on high-flying acrobatics and balletic choreography. The luchadors are famed for their signature masks, often said to be an extension and expression of the wearer’s soul. Many fighters go their entire lives without revealing their faces to the audience—to remove a luchador’s mask, in the storytelling canon of wrestling, is to remove their dignity.
These days, lucha’s influence has disseminated throughout the wrestling world, with the aerial stunts pioneered in Mexico now commonplace everywhere from New Japan Pro Wrestling to WWE. Much of that ascendancy can be attributed to one man: Rey Mysterio, the veteran Mexican-American luchador whose success in WCW and WWE in the ’90s and 2000s helped popularize the lucha style globally and paved the way for countless performers since.
As such, the design of the Air Jordan 3 ‘El Vuelo’ feels appropriate. While not an official collaboration with Mysterio, the shoe’s signature design flourish—crested wings running up the side of each shoe—unmistakably invokes the iconic masks the 619 originator has worn for decades. Pair that with a white leather upper, an off-white sole, snakeskin textures, and red-and-green accents inspired by the Mexican flag, and you’ve got yourself a worthy successor to the beloved ‘El Grito.’
The Air Jordan 3 ‘El Vuelo’ hits the SNKRS app this Saturday, September 20, for $230.
