Ok here is my attempt to give the John Madden break-down.
Keep in mind that these are nit-picky details, but I believe that they illuminate some of the reasons why we've been getting stupid banana-toe boxy IV's the last decade
Pic 1: Classic Jordan IV mold
- note the smooth toe, with a low, sloped angle upwards
- the top of the forefoot follows this angle
- the heel bump is very prominent
- the spacing between the bottom of the wing and the midsole is at least an inch [much larger than today] and also at the correct angle, parallel with the
midsole line
- and, for this discussion, the side leather in the middle is about a third-inch apart from the outsole, and parallel with the angle of the outsole
Pic 2: 2006 Mars IV
- ughh so many problems, Ill try to keep it short [I own this BTW, so Im not picking on anybody]
- The toe box is way too vertical, and does not angle towards the back
- The forefoot is almost completely flat, again not sloping up towards the ankle
- The heel bump is practically non-existent
- The side leather:
- Here the leather is both much to close to the outsole, and also near the bottom begins to tail in towards the outsole causing it to be not-parallel
- This is a symptom of the general tightness and pinching in the middle of the post 99 IV's that leads to banana toe
Pic 3: Recent pic of Black Friday IV
- Toe is still pretty boxy, but it looks rounded back just a little [not much improvement]
- Forefoot looks well padded and angled upward [looks like good improvement]
- Heel bump appears to be making a return
- Side leather looks a decent distance from the outsole, but at least in this pic, [not all of the recent black/cement IV pics] the leather appears parallel,
and without any pinching in
Again, this is nitpick stuff, Im not claiming there has been some kinda major improvement from the early pics of the Black IV's to this one, it just looks slightly improved to my eyes