The ‘Banned’ Metcon. A history.

The Metcon story didn’t begin quietly. When Nike introduced the Metcon 1 in 2015, it was shut out of the CrossFit Games. The issue wasn’t performance, it was politics. Reebok’s sponsorship deal meant their shoes, and only their shoes, were allowed on the floor. Nike’s answer was characteristically defiant: a black and red colourway echoing one of the most notorious sneakers ever, the Air Jordan 1 “Banned.”

In 1984, the NBA allegedly fined Michael Jordan every time he laced up his black and red AJ1s, claiming they broke uniform codes. Nike paid the fines and built the myth, turning a restriction into the spark of a cultural icon. The Metcon 1 carried that same energy. It wasn’t banned for what it could do, but for what it represented. And that gave it weight from the very beginning.

A decade later, the Metcon has gone from outlaw to archetype. Each generation sharpened its edges, with its technology, and ultimately, its performance improving. More stable, more durable, more versatile. Until it became the definitive training shoe. Now the Metcon 10 arrives, refined and uncompromising, with the black and red colourway returning to close the loop. What once lived on the outside is now the blueprint. The rulebreaker has become the rule.