Still Building: Nigel Sylvester Levels Up With His “Brick After Brick” Air Jordan 4

Andrew Rizzo: You’ve always been hands-on with rollout moments. What was your vision for the “Brick After Brick” 4s and how this whole rollout would unfold?
Nigel Sylvester: When it came to the rollout, I wanted it to truly embody the ethos of “Brick After Brick” and the story we’re telling. I wanted each moment to tie back to that idea.
We’ve been big fans of the “Brick After Brick” mobile game around here, too. I thought I was good until I started looking at the leaderboards. There are definitely some pros.

Exactly. Even with that, when you think about a game like Tetris, it’s about being sharp. It’s about consistency, discipline, strategy, and maintaining a level of excellence. All of that ties back into the story we’re telling with “Brick After Brick.”
How was going to Nike World Headquarters and seeing all the custom bike wraps around campus? That must have been pretty surreal.
Man, it was a really cool moment. Nike campus is an institution, a landmark. All the buildings are named after great athletes, whether it’s the MJ building, Jerry Rice, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, and so forth.
Those bikes have been on campus for five or six years now, and they’re the mode of transportation for employees to get from building to building. They help people stay in motion and handle more throughout the day by getting to their destinations quicker.
For Nike and Jordan Brand to bless me with the opportunity to do a custom wrap on those bikes and take over the campus bikes, that meant so much to me. That’s now a brick within my journey. Then from there, we did a bike ride on campus to celebrate “Brick After Brick” and bring joy, happiness, and that freedom that bicycle riding brings to the employees.
I look at the employees as bricks in the journey, too. They’re the heartbeat of the brand. They contribute so much to everything we see happening around the world from Nike and Jordan Brand.
That whole moment meant a lot to me because there were so many layers to it, from the bikes having the “Brick After Brick,” Bike Air, and my name on them, to actually doing the bike ride. This year is my 20th year signed to Nike. I’ve been with Nike for a very long time, so to finally have that salute from the brand felt like a flag in the ground. It was a milestone moment for me.

I want to talk about the MJ pic. You posted a photo with Michael Jordan holding the shoes. What did you talk about with him regarding the release, and what was it like seeing him wear them in public with all the outlets picking it up? That’s pretty rare, to have an actual MJ endorsement like that.
It’s very rare, bro. I think that was a very rare moment. Coming off all the energy and accolades from “Brick By Brick” last year, MJ invited me down to hang out, chill, and kind of celebrate a little bit. During that moment, I gifted him the first pair of “Brick After Brick.”
He loved them. Then I told him the story, and he fell in love with them even more. That was a wow moment for me, having the opportunity to gift him our shoe and share the story with him. That was super dope.
He told me he was going to wear them, but I didn’t know when it was going to happen. Then literally, I was in my kitchen drinking a cup of coffee that morning and started seeing all the blogs post the images. That was super fire because he debuted them. To have MJ debut this shoe made it even more special. That was the beginning of this journey.
It was one of those things we didn’t plan. It just happened that way. He put them on, and someone like him is only going to wear what he wants to wear. So the fact that he wore them meant a lot.
Because like I said, there was no talk. We’d just be at lunch like, “Man, when are you gonna get a shoe?” And I’d be like, “I don’t know.” And he took it upon himself like, “Yo, I want to make something for you.” He came back with that, and I held it close to my heart for years.
We’ve been enjoying seeing him out more now that his racing team is doing really well.
He’s been wearing a lot of 4s lately, too. Some 1s as well. Some 1 Lows. He’s doing his thing, bro. To see MJ and his team be as dominant as they are in the world of NASCAR is super special.
We know MJ has been around motorsports for a very long time and has been putting work into it, grinding it out and trying to figure it out. To see it happening now, salute to him.

Now on to the shoes more specifically. What details mattered most to you during the design process?
For me, my design language is about keeping a clean aesthetic and putting the main talking points in the details. The 3M behind the cage, for example, is something that has been featured on the majority of my collaborations because of the functionality of 3M and how it relates to bicycle riding. For me, that makes sense. I want to use details as an opportunity to further the storytelling.
Even the internal workings of the shoe matter. This AJ4 “Brick After Brick” sits on the same tooling as the Nike SB 4, which is way more comfortable. I think the Air bag is moved, so you get more cushioning. In terms of bike riding, that’s super important.

We have the word “Brick” on the lace tips, which is a really cool detail. My association with the word “brick” and the meaning we’ve now injected into it makes having that on the lace tips super special.

Then there’s the brick texture on the heel tab, which is one of the main features of the shoe. I wanted to apply that texture differently than we did on “Brick By Brick,” so we put it on the heel tab and changed the color to muslin. That was very special. We also have the little hand-drawn bike inside the heel tab. Again, having the bicycle and elements around bike riding present on the shoe was super important.

I want to talk about the Sneaker of the Year debate. You’ve been on quite a run since “Grandma’s Driveway,” and there’s been a consistent storytelling thread through all your releases since. As a storyteller, when every shoe is a different piece of the larger story, what do you think when people debate which one is better?
I think it’s fun. For me and the team, we go in and do our best. We want to tell a relatable story, a meaningful story, something that has impact and feels disruptive. We get to a place where we’re proud of it, then we put it out. The rest is up to the people.
That’s what makes it fun, right? People are having these discussions. Is it “Brick By Brick?” Is it “Brick After Brick?” Is it something else? Like you mentioned, “Grandma’s Driveway” was a very important shoe for me. Those were my first releases after officially signing to Jordan Brand. We did two colorways, and they told a very intimate story. My grandma’s driveway is where I fell in love with bike riding. That’s one of my earliest childhood memories, and it’s still very vivid for me. When I think about it, I remember the feeling. I remember the excitement.
To start from there in this chapter of my career and life, and now be where we are, we’ve dropped some very interesting stories and shoes. I love that people connect with them and relate to them.
A few days ago I saw people walking by wearing “Better With Time” and “Grandma’s Driveway.” I was like, man, what we’re making is resonating. When people put on clothes or shoes, it’s a reflection of how they feel that day. To know that we’re making something people are connecting with in that way, man, that’s a good feeling.

What about the kid in New York who knows you through the sneakers but might not be as familiar with your BMX background? What do you hope they take away from the run you’re on right now and the way you’re telling your story?
I hope the stories we’re telling through these sneakers pique their curiosity enough to go do more research and see what I’ve been up to for the past decade-plus. All of this is happening because of the bicycle, first and foremost. That’s why the box says Bike Air. That’s why the shoe says Bike Air. The bike is at the center of it.
I also want kids to understand that whatever it is they dream of, whatever it is they love and want to pursue, they never know where it may take them. When I started riding BMX bikes, I wanted to have a signature shoe one day, but I didn’t know we would have this many.
That’s a really good feeling. I don’t think anyone would have predicted we’d be on this run in the world of sneakers, coming from BMX riding. It just doubles down on the fact that if you apply yourself, love something, and work at it, it’s super possible.
How did your “Brick After” track come together?
Music is something I’ve always had around me and always used as a source of motivation, or as a way to block out the noise of the world. When I’m out in the streets riding, there’s so much going on. People talking, cars driving by, just all these natural sounds around me. I use music to block that out when I’m riding.
So when I had the opportunity to start collaborating with different artists, it made sense because it’s natural for me. Even when I’m editing content or making videos, I’m always looking for a track to put behind it. It goes hand in hand.
With “Better With Time,” I really wanted to do a song for that rollout and that shoe. A$AP (Ferg) is my bro. We’ve been down for a very long time, so we put the song out and got an understanding of what it could be. Coming into “Brick After Brick,” I wanted to do another record. I wanted to up the ante and really use music as a medium to further the storytelling around the shoe.
Through the “Brick By Brick” journey, Stove God was an artist I was listening to on repeat. The way he puts his tracks together, how he flips words, the beats he uses, all of that resonated with me in a real way.
We became friends naturally through mutual friends, talking on Instagram, and seeing each other at Fashion Week. So when it came time for this project, I was like, “Yo Stove, your music was like a soundtrack for me during ‘Brick By Brick.’ Coming into this next one, I would love to collaborate with you and do a record.” He was like, “Let me know what you want to do.”
From there, I knew I wanted to put Cello on the record as well. I felt like him and Stove have completely different styles, but that juxtaposition would complement each other on a record. The pieces started to fall into place. When I heard the first version, I was like, this is definitely it. This is super dope. There are so many plays on words, and each of them dives into my story from a different angle, which is super dope.
Having that as part of the rollout, using these different mediums to tell the broader story, that’s what gets me excited. Whether it’s a claw machine, a record, a bike ride on campus, a photoshoot with Jeezy, art, or gaming, these are all mediums I love and natural extensions of my life and creativity. Using them is special. It gives people from different walks of life an opportunity to be part of what we’re doing over here.

What are you building toward next?
So much of this is still new for me. As long as I can continue to live off my imagination, this partnership will continue to bear fruit.
I feel like we’re definitely aligned. This is my seventh shoe with Jordan Brand, my seventh release. A lot of people can’t say that. I feel like we’re going to continue to cook and continue putting out good product and good stories for the people.