Jordan Brand recently revealed its Spring 2023 Air Jordan retro collection, giving sneakerheads a heaping holiday helping of heat to look forward to when the calendar turns. The collection is made up of 16 styles in total, ranging from long-awaited retro bringbacks to fresh spins on classic colorways and entirely new styles across men’s, women’s and kids styles.
The Air Jordan 1 makes up a quarter of the collection with one Air Jordan 1 Hi ‘85 and three iterations of the Air Jordan 1 High OG. The ‘85 is the “Black/White,” a simple-yet-effective two-tone style that predates the “Panda” Dunk craze by almost 40 years: it was originally released in 1985 and last retroed in 2014. Meanwhile, the Air Jordan 1 High OG colorways are the “True Blue” and the “White Cement,” both of which are inspired by familiar colorways of Michael Jordan’s third signature sneaker, plus a flipped version of the “Laney” color scheme that nods to MJ’s high school.
A duo of Air Jordan 2 colorways get in on the mix as well, namely the Boston Celtics-esque “Lucky Green” and a women’s “Sunset Haze” that offers a mixture of earthy tones and warm pink accents. There’s only a single Air Jordan 3 this season, but due to the reaction to its leaks, it’ll likely go down as the most popular pair in the entire collection. It’s the long-awaited return of the Air Jordan 3 “White Cement,” dubbed the “Reimagined” and created with painstaking attention to detail to ensure that — apart from its “aged” midsole and heel tab — it’s a perfect match for the beloved colorway that we haven’t seen on the AJ 3 since 2013.
Two styles of the Air Jordan 4 and three takes on the Air Jordan 5 are present as well. For the AJ 4, there’s a “Photon Dust” colorway that uses compelling suede paneling and hits of soft yellowish-tan plus a women’s “Oil Green” colorway that takes the famous “Fire Red” and swaps its flaming red shades out for a more low-key green tone. On the Air Jordan 5 front, the Jumpman has given us an “Aqua” colorway that was inspired by one of Chris Paul’s PEs when he was a member of the Charlotte Hornets, a “University Blue” that’s an obvious nod to MJ’s days on Chapel Hill as a member of the UNC Tar Heels and a women’s “Mars For Her” that’s essentially an alternate take on the popular “Raging Bull” color scheme.
A single Air Jordan 6, the chilled-out “Cool Grey,” offers a crisp interpretation of a color scheme popularized by the Air Jordan 11 of the same name. There’s also a standalone Air Jordan 9 dubbed the “Light Olive,” a spin on the OG “Olive” that offers a lighter secondary tone and blue accents in place of red. The Air Jordan 13 is present and accounted for via the first “Playoffs” retro in a decade for a celebration of its 25th anniversary, and last but not least the Air Jordan 14 is supplied in a women’s “Metallic Silver” colorway that draws from high-performance motorsports.
This set of 16 Air Jordan retros will begin rolling out in January 2023, and though leakers have speculated release dates for many of the pairs (for example, the Air Jordan 13 “Playoffs” has largely been reported to touch down around NBA All-Star Weekend) Jordan Brand has yet to make any official announcements.
While you wait for the collection to start hitting shelves, be sure to check out the Hypebeast team’s favorite sneakers of 2022.
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