With the holiday season already in full swing Jordan Brand and Nike took advantage, as they do every year, to hype up another retro release. This year they went with the "space jam" pack, releasing "remastered" versions of the Air Jordan IX in the home white and black color way and the beloved Air Jordan XI in what's been dubbed as the "Space Jam" color way. If you ask me, it's probably one of the better JB retro releases this year, with the exception of the "flu games".
Space Jam XI
The Air Jordan XI comes back in true form with a higher patent leather cut, jumpman logos facing the directions they were facing back in 1996, and the colorway Michael Jordan debuted in his movie "space jam" (hence the nickname space jams). I never owned a pair of XIs back when I was a kid in 1996, it is, however, the shoe that started my infatuation with sneakers. There was just something about the patent leather and mesh combination that drew me in, and to have the shoe featured in a movie that combined my favorite player and some of my favorite cartoon characters pfffft, take my money.
The popularity of this Air Jordan model should be no surprise to anyone. To the masses it's just another hyped up air jordan sneaker that kids beat each other up for, but for sneakerheads its a chance to own a piece of our childhood. I grew up watching those "like mike" commercials, mars blackmon commercials, anything michael jordan was in I was watching. Why wouldn't I want to be like mike? how could I do that? own a pair of his signature Nikes. The marketing geniuses at Nike sucked us all in and we begged our parents to bless us with a pair to flex at school, only to ruin them by the end of the month. The Air Jordan XI had kids thinking they were actually MJ, it was a great time to be a kid.
OG IX
The Air Jordan IX, as I remember it, was a baseball cleat. Then again in 1993 I was about 5 years old and MJ just retired to start a new career in baseball. It wasn't until Space Jam came out that I saw them as a basketball shoe, and my thoughts were "so they did make them a basketball shoe". I didn't like them at first, but as time went on and the more Jordanbrand retroed them, the more intrigued I was by the Air Jordan IX. However, this particular color way was the one I wanted the most because of space jam. Also, 2Pac wore them, so theres that.
The Air Jordan IX features an all leather upper, air units encased in a polyurethane midsole, and inner neoprene bootie. Your basic 90s nike basketball shoe set up, more times than not I actually really like this set up. On this particular model, not so much, It just doesn't feel like a shoe I can feel safe hoopin in. Aesthetically though, they look great and the craftsmanship on this year's retro is probably the best i've seen from Jordanbrand in a while.
here are some more pictures of the "space jam pack". ENJOY!
-RAWfiki
