Why did the OG Air Jordan VIII only release in 3 cws?

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I've been wondering this a lot lately... There were a bunch of OG cws for the 6 and 7s but 8s only had these three:

jordan_og_viii_group.jpg
 
I think it had to do with Mike retiring after the 93 season. Had he not retired, I'm sure Nike would have giving him a 4th color way to start the 94 season.
 
The VIIIs were long designed, completed and had all already released by the time Michael Jordan's father was murdered in July of 1993. In fact, they were already looking ahead to the Xs (as the IXs would be released that following season).

Simply put, signature models didn't release in the abundance of colors that they do now. Air Jordans have almost always averaged anywhere from 3-5 colors.

II: 2
III, IV and V: 4
VI and VII: 5
IX: 4
XI: 3
XII: 4
 
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The VIIIs were long designed, completed and had all already released by the time Michael Jordan's father was murdered in July of 1993. In fact, they were already looking ahead to the Xs (as the IXs would be released that following season).

Simply put, signature models didn't release in the abundance of colors that they do now. Air Jordans have almost always averaged anywhere from 3-5 colors.

II: 2
III, IV and V: 4
VI and VII: 5
IX: 4
XI: 3
XII: 4

This and Repped.
 
The VIIIs were long designed, completed and had all already released by the time Michael Jordan's father was murdered in July of 1993. In fact, they were already looking ahead to the Xs (as the IXs would be released that following season).

Simply put, signature models didn't release in the abundance of colors that they do now. Air Jordans have almost always averaged anywhere from 3-5 colors.

II: 2
III, IV and V: 4
VI and VII: 5
IX: 4
XI: 3
XII: 4
that's so real. While I sometimes see the space jams as OG, I never really thought about the fact that XIs only had 3 colorways. I wonder if others consider the sj 11s as OGs too
 
The VIIIs were long designed, completed and had all already released by the time Michael Jordan's father was murdered in July of 1993. In fact, they were already looking ahead to the Xs (as the IXs would be released that following season).

Simply put, signature models didn't release in the abundance of colors that they do now. Air Jordans have almost always averaged anywhere from 3-5 colors.

II: 2
III, IV and V: 4
VI and VII: 5
IX: 4
XI: 3
XII: 4

Good info. I think the fact there were no lows released throws people off as well. With lows inclded, the count looks more like this:
II - 4
III - 4
IV - 4
V - 4
VI - 5
VII - 5
VII - 3
IX - 4
XI - 5

Even though it's just 1 less, it still makes the VIIIS feel like they didn't release many different versions.
 
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that's so real. While I sometimes see the space jams as OG, I never really thought about the fact that XIs only had 3 colorways. I wonder if others consider the sj 11s as OGs too

I wouldn't consider Space Jams as OG in that they didn't officially release in 1995, even though they were originally worn by Michael Jordan prior to the 2000 release (except the blue was a deep royal purple).

mjmoney23 mjmoney23 , CT is like the arctic today man, hope you've been well and are surviving this winter. Even crazier was that lows appeared for I, II and then not again until XIII.
 
I wouldn't consider Space Jams as OG in that they didn't officially release in 1995, even though they were originally worn by Michael Jordan prior to the 2000 release (except the blue was a deep royal purple).

mjmoney23 mjmoney23 , CT is like the arctic today man, hope you've been well and are surviving this winter. Even crazier was that lows appeared for I, II and then not again until XIII.

MJ wore 11 lows in the playoffs and during the championship parade... Weird they never released them until several years later.
 
The 8 released in February 93, and the 9's release date was the Fall of 93. That's why. Air Jordan's had a fall release date starting with the 9 lasting through the 15. The 16 restarted the all star release date again.
 
The 8 released in February 93, and the 9's release date was the Fall of 93. That's why. Air Jordan's had a fall release date starting with the 9 lasting through the 15. The 16 restarted the all star release date again.

this.

they probably meant to release the 9s in early 94, but with MJ retiring they moved up the release to coincide with the start of basketball season since they didnt have the vehicle of having MJ premiere them in the ASG like he did in the past
 
MJ wore 11 lows in the playoffs and during the championship parade... Weird they never released them until several years later.

Don't forget the xi IE lows from the original run of xis. Those were the start of lows looking nothing like the mids. There were several models like this (xvi, xix, xx). That is one thing I never understood the point of. They basically were a shoe with the same midsole and a completely different upper, which is now something found in most team Jordans.
 
The VIIIs were long designed, completed and had all already released by the time Michael Jordan's father was murdered in July of 1993. In fact, they were already looking ahead to the Xs (as the IXs would be released that following season).

Simply put, signature models didn't release in the abundance of colors that they do now. Air Jordans have almost always averaged anywhere from 3-5 colors.

II: 2
III, IV and V: 4
VI and VII: 5
IX: 4
XI: 3
XII: 4

Then why were there so many cws of OG 1s?
 
There were so many colorways of the Air Jordan 1 because Nike still marketed them as sportswear at the time and it was a fairly new, big deal and selling point in early 1980s to have sneakers with more than 2 colors or team colors. Other shoes released along side of Air Jordan 1 like Dunks,Terminators had tons of colorways at its launch also
 
There were so many colorways of the Air Jordan 1 because Nike still marketed them as sportswear at the time and it was a fairly new, big deal and selling point in early 1980s to have sneakers with more than 2 colors or team colors. Other shoes released along side of Air Jordan 1 like Dunks,Terminators had tons of colorways at its launch also

So starting with the 2s, they started to scale back CWs? The # of CWs released still seems inconsistent.
 
It made the shoes more special, IMO.

Nowadays, cats like Bron, Kobe and KD have about 20 GR colorways of each model :smh:

Probably why each line is garbage now to.
 
There were so many colorways of the Air Jordan 1 because Nike still marketed them as sportswear at the time and it was a fairly new, big deal and selling point in early 1980s to have sneakers with more than 2 colors or team colors. Other shoes released along side of Air Jordan 1 like Dunks,Terminators had tons of colorways at its launch also

Exactly, aside from the Bulls themed colorways, you could say the 1 was also the first and only Air Jordan to do TB (team bank) colorways.
 
So starting with the 2s, they started to scale back CWs? The # of CWs released still seems inconsistent.

The colorways are mostly consistent. Like I say 3-5, aside from a few exceptions.

I (High): 24+
II (High): 2
III, IV and V: 4
VI and VII: 5
VIII: 3
IX: 4
X: 3 (8 including the "City Pack"
XI: 3
XII: 4
XIII: 5
XIV: 5 (6 with UNC Eastbay exclusive)
XVI: 2
XVII and XVIII: 3
XIX: 2

It wasn't until Nike started weaving narratives into their colorways and models that random non-team inspired colorways started appearing in large numbers, roughly around 2012. Now with NBA "sneaker holiday campaigns," you see even more. None of this existed in Jordan's day. You made colorways that matched the uniform and maybe one random colorway (UNC) for an alma mater or one that was tied to the initial inspiration of the shoe.
 
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Typically the colorways went like:

One Home colorway
One Away colorway
One alternate team colorway
One lifestyle Non-Bulls colorway
 
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