The Best Air Jordans of 2024

10. Air Jordan 9 'Olive'

Release Date: 11/9/24
Price: $210

The Air Jordan 9 “Olive” is right outside the upper echelon of original Air Jordans. It’s part of Tinker Hatfield’s untouchable run of Jordan designs, and the brown colorway has a fun alternate history thanks to all those pairs that wearers dyed black. It’s a good shoe, there’s no doubting that. But this has been a great year for Air Jordan retros, so as good as the "Olive" Jordan 9 is, the competition is just better. —Brendan Dunne

9. Air Jordan 4 'Military Blue'

Release Date: 5/4/24
Price: $215

These are the “Military Blue” Air Jordan 4s. Get that “Industrial Blue” BS outta here. This is a good shoe. It’s an original colorway of one of, if not the best Air Jordans ever. But it’s the “worst” of the original colorways. Michael Jordan never wore them. The retros in the past have been crap, but this one is good, except for the name snafu. While they were good, the Military Blue really isn’t anyone’s favorite Jordan (sorry if it’s yours). So it will always be a somewhat celebrated shoe, but never the top of the tops. —Matt Welty

8. J Balvin x Air Jordan 3

Release Date: 5/22/24
Price: $250

My G. J Balvin got back with Jordan Brand here, continuing his Air Jordan 3 collaboration from last year with a black pair. Last year’s white version of this shoe was one of the best Jordans and sneakers overall of 2023. The black pair is good, but it didn’t quite hit the same this year. Or maybe other things were better. It’s really hard to follow up a great shoe with just another colorway in the same style. Balvin was able to do it, albeit to less critical acclaim. His story about the shoe and seeing the light in the darkness is great, though. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. —Matt Welty

7. Nina Chanel Abney x Air Jordan 3

Release Date: 6/13/24
Price: $225

Nina Chanel Abney got her first chance to collaborate on an Air Jordan in 2022 and delivered two colorways of the Air Jordan 2. And like almost every other Air Jordan 2 collaboration, the reception was lukewarm, and they are currently available at deep discounts on the secondary market. Despite being handicapped with an unpopular model, the vision was there—fans of Abney’s work could see the correlation between her bold style and the reworking of the outcast of prime-era Air Jordan silhouettes. Her Air Jordan 3, however, allowed that vision to come to fruition. It stripped the model of its signature leather and elephant print, flipping the texture with waxed canvas and shaggy suede in bright shades of green, orange, and yellow, as if the colors leapt off the canvas of one of her paintings. The ambitious choices made here helped differentiate the collaboration on a model where simply not screwing it up can be all it takes to have a hit. —Zac Dubasik

6. Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 Low ‘Elkins’

Release Date: 5/25/24
Price: $150

The biggest complaint about Travis Scott’s collaborative line of footwear with Nike and Jordan Brand is that it’s been repetitive. He’s released eight different versions of the Air Jordan 1 Low, with the vast majority of them coming in familiar neutral colors that fit right in with the rest of his aesthetic. But this time around Travis let his fans in on his life a bit, dressing the 1 Low in canary yellow and blue, the colors of Elkins High School, the rapper’s alma mater in Missouri City, Texas. Yes, it might just be another version of the Travis Scott Air Jordan 1 Low, but we’re giving Travis props this time around for mixing it up a bit with the new colorway. What are the odds that Travis and Michael Jordan’s high school have the exact same color scheme? —Ben Felderstein

5. Air Jordan 11 'Legend Blue'

Release Date: 12/14/24
Price: $230

We still kind of wish Jordan Brand would just stick to the original colorways when it comes to Air Jordan 11 releases. Aside from the exception of the elite “Cool Grey” Jordan 11, a lot of the retro colorways that hit the shoe in the 21st century did not need to exist. We’re reminded of that every time the annual holiday Air Jordan 11 comes in one of the original palettes, as it will this year in the form of the white-based “Legend Blue,” which was originally known as the “Columbia.” Jordan wore the sneaker at the 1996 NBA All-Star Game in San Antonio, pairing it with that year’s legendary chilli pepper All-Star jersey. It’s the cleanest Air Jordan 11 ever released—yes, we’re ignoring the Jumpman-less “Silver Anniversary” version from 2010—and that’s saying a lot for a sneaker this slick. —Brendan Dunne

4. Air Jordan 17 Low ‘Lightning’

Release Date: 5/30/24
Price: $300

This was a darkhorse candidate for the Sneaker of the Year list for some. The Air Jordan 17 came back this May in limited numbers. It was the first time the shoe had ever been retroed since its debut back in 2002. Some nitpicked and said the Lows, which were what dropped, never came in the briefcase packaging that this retro did. But it was still a cool inclusion. I can’t picture a Jordan 17 being a mass market shoe in 2024—it hardly was one upon its initial release. But it’s cool to see that people can appreciate something other than the first few Jordan models we see over and over again. —Matt Welty

3. Nigel Sylvester x Air Jordan 4 RM

Release Date: 7/20/24
Price: $150

We had a lot of conversation around this shoe determining if it even belonged on this list. That had nothing to do with how good the sneaker is, because as you can see by its placement, we all think that the sneaker itself is really quite good. But is it actually an Air Jordan model, and not just a Jordan (like the Jumpman Jack/CJ1 T-Rexx, which was left off this list for that reason)? Once we moved past that debate, it was easy to discuss all the positives surrounding the Nigel Sylvester x Air Jordan 4 RM. It’s a brand new silhouette that the Jumpman tapped biker Sylvester to help on, the grandma’s driveaway story was spot on, and the rollout was as good as it gets. Syliver started the launch day in London, had a bike ride with thousands of fans, and then hopped right on a jet to New York City and basically shut down the streets of Manhattan with fans, Lil Yachty, and others. The general release versions of the Air Jordan 4 RM are forgettable to say the least, but both of Nigel’s stood out. — Ben Felderstein

2. Air Jordan 4 ‘Bred Reimagined’

Release Date: 2/17/24
Price: $215

“But the original was better.” Sure, we all know and love the “Bred” Air Jordan 4 in its original form; its nubuck upper is an iconic part of Air Jordan, and sneaker, history. But is it actually superior to a smoother leather, or just what we are familiar and comfortable with? Had the original version used standard leather—not a stretch to imagine since all of the other original Air Jordan 4 colorways were leather, as was the equally iconic “Black Cement” Air Jordan 3—would we have been complaining that the “reimagined” nubuck version was good, but not as good as the original? It’s an impossible hypothetical, but one worth pondering as more subtle variations emerge throughout the years. As you’ll see in our choice for the no. 1 Air Jordan of 2024, we still place a premium on originality, but the changes made here felt like a worthwhile exercise in product evolution. Will we always like the original more, justly or not? Probably, but this reimagining is a fun “What if?” maintaining 95 percent of what makes the shoe so special without sacrificing wearability in the process. —Zac Dubasik

1. Air Jordan 3 ‘Black Cement’

Release Date: 11/23/24
Price: $220

It feels like the further away we get from the original release date of a given Air Jordan, the better the retro versions get. There are exceptions to this, like Jordan Brand’s intentional alterations made through the “reimagined” line. But generally speaking, retros of Air Jordans right now feel like they’re better than they’ve ever been. There is more attention paid to detail and more catering to the nerdiest tier sneaker collectors, who obsess over the shapes and cuts of silhouettes. The people responsible for recreating the best of Michael Jordan’s sneakers are doing a better job of it now than they were in the 2000s and 2010s. The “Black Cement” Air Jordan 3 that released this year might be the best example of that yet.

The “Black Cement” Air Jordan 3, which first released in 1988, is undoubtedly one of the best Air Jordans ever. But it hasn’t always been treated properly. The shoe has been re-released on six separate occasions, with a handful of them deviating too far from the source material. The nadir came in the late 2000s and early 2010s, when Jordan Brand was still giving us original colorways without the “Nike Air” hit on the back. The retro forms got better as the last decade progressed—the 2018 pair was pretty good, if a little exaggerated—and may have been nearly perfected this year. Unless you have a time machine or an ‘88 pair that was perfectly preserved in a climate controlled room for 36 years, you’re not getting a better version of this classic anywhere. The “Black Cement” Air Jordan 3 retro (quality control issues with mismatching elephant print aside) really is that good. —Brendan Dunne