As a kid (8th grade and below) the only way to aquire Jordans was to have your parents buy them for you, which was rare in itself due to the high price point.
There were adults who also wore Air Jordans, like my 43 year old gym teacher and my friends father, for example. But they weren't buying multiple pairs or even a new pair every year. Instead, they would be focused on buying homes or cars. Real estate was VERY cheap in the 1980's and early 1990's and affordable compared to today.
The Baby Boom generation (people born between 1945-1965) came of age during the greatest economic boom in human history. This was greatly due to the destruction of European manufacturing during WW2.
Industrial plants in America became the center of production for the entire world. People had good union jobs that were protected with steadily rising wages. But since the 1980's, along with the creation NAFTA in 1993, all US manufacturing has been slowly outsourced to China, Mexico, etc.
America is essentially just a place to shop now. People can't even afford to have kids, let alone purchase a home without being endebted to the banks. This is the end game of neo-liberal capitalism, which is a horrible system imo.