The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is noted as one of the greatest sitcoms of all time and is known for catapulting Will Smith into superstar status. Of the many memorable moments in the show that ran from 1990 to 1996, many fans and sneakerheads remember how Will always wore the newest or hottest Jordans during the episodes. In fact, in the first episode, he dons a pair of Metallic 5’s, and in the final episode, a pair of Columbia 11s.
Well, on a recent episode of Matt Barnes and Steven Jackson’s All The Smoke podcast, Will Smith revealed that he used to beg Michael Jordan to send him pairs before they were released so he could wear them on the show.
“I was living the culture,” Smith said. “I was literally calling Jordan like ‘Mike, please, please don’t give it to nobody. Just let me be the first person, I gotta be the first person to wear it’. And he was like ‘Man, I don’t run that.'”
Smith also said he was unaware that Nike released multiple colorways of Jordan 5’s under the “Fresh Prince” name. The first pair dropped in 2013 and featured the “Grape” colorway without the laces (as Will famously wore them in the show), the second pair dropped in 2018, and the last pair dropped in 2020.
You can watch the clip below.
