Published on
In the final episode of season three of The A-Team, Mr. T is rocking a pair of bright red sneakers with a bold silver Swoosh. At first glance, I figured they were the same Nike Cortez he’d worn in an earlier episode. But thanks to several close-up shots, it became clear that—despite the identical colorway—this was actually a different model.
The shoes turn out to be the Nike Field General. Fun bit of trivia: it’s also the original version of the high-top sneaker worn by Eleven in the final season of Stranger Things.
The shoe is showcased multiple times throughout the episode, and at one point it even gets a surprisingly unusual close-up of the sole—when Mr. T is clobbered from behind and goes down, flailing his legs straight toward the camera. It’s an oddly deliberate shot, and the bright red-and-silver colorway practically leaps off the screen every time it appears, demanding your attention.
The closest product photos I could find came from an auction listing at Sotheby’s, where a pair of Nike Field General sneakers was offered for sale—though they were intriguingly labeled as “Nike ‘Solid Gold’ Dancing Sneakers.” The listing included the following description:
Extremely rare promo dancing shoes created in 1980 for dancers on the “Solid Gold” television show. These were never released to the public. The style features a combined 770 Swooshes throughout: 382 on each outsole, two on each upper, and one on each tongue.
- Red nylon and suede uppers, metallic silver foil swooshes and heel tabs, original metallic silver glitter laces.
- Two-tone white and red midsoles and brown outsoles each with 382 Swooshes.
- Tongues are thin, without inner foam, and labeled with black Nike logo.
Here are two of the photos Sotheby’s published as part of the auction listing:
It’s fascinating that Mr. T is wearing two completely different sneaker models in the exact same red-and-silver colorway that season. It really makes you wonder: was this a popular Nike color scheme in 1984/85 that found its way onto multiple models? Or were these pairs custom-made for the production—similar to the auctioned pair at Sotheby’s?
If you have any insight, be sure to drop a comment below.
