$185 per the giant lettering in the title.
. Sounds like a promising shoe though, I will def. cop if/when on discount.
Ahhhh man, so many thoughts on the XXXIs...
The heel pods and FlightSpeed cushioning setup looks to be out of this world! Great to see the continued progression in that regard with each of the recent flagship Air Jordans. Anti Gravity Machines, indeed...
that inner bootie on the ankle should be great for comfort as well. I like the height it adds to the silhouette and effectively brings out the DNA from the 1 ...
BUT the Jumpman and the swoosh so proximate to each other on the shoe is not working for me :x : to say it represents the transition from the past to present is barely neat in theory and clearly less than in execution ...
on the 2011s we got treated to handcrafted Patina leather; five years later, the use of synthetic leather on these is dispiriting ...
THAT BIG *** "BANNED" ON THE OUTSOLE IS WACK AF. It's bad enough this is like the 4th or 5th iteration of the "new and improved AJ1," but to so animatedly lean on a shortsighted nba policy and subsequent marketing gimmick from three decades ago
HOPEFULLY, the shoe can be salvaged through variations in the upper patterns and logo placement, as we've seen with the xx8's and xx9s recently and other remixes like .5s and SEs through the years. Wrap the old wings logo- or even the new version we saw in the early leak - around the heel counter like the XXXs, or maybe just move the Jumpman there...
AND if we can't get that, throw em up on NIKEid with as many color options as the 1s had back in 85...
OVERALL, IMO, this model, looks-wise, from what has been seen thus far, zigged with the zigs - where traditionally we could expect the new Air Jordan to zag. The shoe "fits in" with the current design vernacular of the basketball shoe market and does its best attempt at standing out with an obnoxious utilization of co-branding. Nonetheless, aesthetics aside, you have to consider the shoe a success in terms of pushing innovation with the refinements to the tech that went into it. Ultimately, I'm sure I'll own a pair.
CC: Tate Kuerbis (and whoever else had a part in bringing this forward)
