The Best Air Jordan Sneakers of 2025 (So Far)

Is Jordan Brand back? Things are feeling a little different as we look back on the Best Air Jordans of 2025, so far. It would be absurd to pretend like sneaker collectors ever pivoted fully away from the Jumpman, but there’s no doubt that the house Michael Jordan built felt like it was cooling down over the past couple of years. Mesh runners and Y2K-era retros took over sneaker trends a few years into the 2020s, and all of a sudden ancient basketball sneakers started to feel, well, outdated. In the past couple years, Air Jordans haven’t felt as salient as they did pre-2020. This year might change all that. In the past six months alone, Jordan Brand has brought back a handful of its best-ever sneakers, revisited top-tier collabs from recent years, and remade once-unattainable grails into retail releases. You could interpret the run of hot product as a “break glass in case of emergency” move, or the waking of a not-quit-sleeping (but maybe kinda tired) giant. Either way, it resulted in a great year for collectors and a strong run of Air Jordans at the mid-year point. —Brendan Dunne

Release Date: 03/15/2025
Price: $210

This sneaker let us know this year was going to be different. In the past, a Jordan 9 might not have made the most noise. It was all 1s, 3s, 4s, and 11s. But this year saw the Air Jordan 5 “Black Metallic” become one of the biggest releases. And it was followed up by the Air Jordan 9 “Cool Grey.” That’s a good shoe, no doubt. It’s not an original Air Jordan. Instead it came out during Jordan’s Wizard days. And was worn by other players in the league, too. But Cool Grey is such a great color, even if it’s not a prime Tinker Hatfield-era Jordan palette. It also had been 13 years since the sneakers re-released. They came out and sold out, proving that Jordan Brand can change its business strategy. —Matt Welty

Release Date: 05/22/2025
Price: $1,000

There’s no real reason that the Swarovski x Air Jordan 1 Low should exist. From its $1,000 retail price, to the mundane original colorway, this sneaker has “bad idea’ written all over it—until you actually see it. Detailed images start to look pretty interesting. It still doesn’t totally make sense, but at least it’s a cool visual. But when you see it either in person or in video, that’s when the sneaker really starts to come together and can be fully appreciated. Excessive in every way imaginable? Absolutely. The sneaker is so well executed though that you can’t look away from the glimmering crystals that ignite when moved around. The collaborator and colorway may never make sense, but who are we to argue when the result is something so interesting. —Zac Dubasik

Release Date: 03/18/2025
Price: $225

The first SB x Air Jordan 4 was a consensus pick for sneaker of the year when it dropped in 2023. What went wrong on the next colorway, the navy one that came out in March 2025, that has it barely cracking a mid-year list of best Air Jordans? Nothing, really. It’s a fine shoe, but not a very exciting one. It’s a remake of a well-received project that frankly doesn’t do anything aside from flipping a different color into the accents. (If we’re being really harsh, it also might be a little overshadowed by the unreleased red pair.) That means we get another crack at the SB-inflected Jordan 4 formula, but it doesn’t mean too much in the grand scheme of sneakers this year. —Brendan Dunne

Release Date: 03/01/2025
Price: $200

Any time the “Flu Game” 12 comes back it’s guaranteed to be a hit. Except the 2009 pair that we shouldn’t talk about. But when done right, it’s as good as gold. That black and red upper. The buttery leather. You can’t go wrong. Plus, Michael Jordan wore them for one his actual iconic moments, not one of those random episodes pulled from his life that Jordan Brand sometimes uses for design inspiration. The “Flu Game” was one of the core performances that built his legacy. Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals in Utah. Jordan had the flu, or food poisoning, or was hungover. And still put up 38 points and lead the Bulls to a win, all in these red and black sneakers. Hunched over. Dehydrated. In pain. People remember that. Even if they weren’t old enough to. Maybe they just like good sneakers. —Matt Welty

Release Date: 05/17/2025
Price: $200

Putting flags on sneakers can be risky, and it’s gone wrong for Nike a few times before. There was the 2009 Air Jordan 12 “Rising Sun” that needed last-minute insole removal on account of the imperialistic Japanese symbol printed on the sockliner, and then the infamous “Betsy Ross” Air Max 1 from 2019 that got pulled before it could hit shelves. Pick the wrong symbol for the shoes and you risk upsetting some group somewhere. But pick the right one—and dodge any negative baggage associated—and you can endear a whole nation to a release. Jordan Brand’s got that right a couple times now on its South Korea-themed Air Jordan 3s, the first of which was a unicorn pair from 2018 that barely released. This year, a sequel arrived in the form of the Air Jordan 3 “Seoul 2.0,” a more widely available, more detailed take on the Korea tribute. The aged midsoles might have been a miss, but otherwise this shoe did almost everything right, flag symbol on the tongue included. —Brendan Dunne

Release Date: 02/27/2025
Price: $200

Union brought back its Air Jordan 1 mash-up concept in 2025, this time combining the “Chicago” and “Shadow” colorways. The collaboration didn’t generate the type of hype it originally did in 2018 with the “Black Toe” and “Storm Blue” versions, but it was still a strong release that featured two of the most popular original Air Jordan colorways from 1985. And despite not meeting the lofty expectations of the earlier versions that still resell for four figures, the “Chicago Shadows” quickly sold out, and are currently averaging over $350 on StockX—a decent flip on a $200 retail price at a time when profit margins are shrinking more and more for resellers. As with the original Union x Air Jordan 1 collabs, this version comes with a set of yellow laces that doesn’t totally make sense, but also seems more exciting than the two-tone alternative. —Zac Dubasik

Release Date: 05/24/2025
Price: $250

This is the second best original colorway of the Air Jordan 4, which many might say is the best Air Jordan ever. That means it’s a very good, very elite sneaker in the pantheon of all original Air Jordans. It’s been nine years since the Air Jordan 4 “White Cement” has been on the market. And even though we’re in an economic dip, people still wanted these shoes—even at $225. It’s hefty price tag to pay for a 36-year-old shoe. The quality of the shoe was questionable when I saw it in hand. Some claim they think it’s better; we’ll let you make your own conclusions. It’s still one of the best-looking shoes of all time. Buggin’ Out got upset when his pair got run over. I’d feel the same way, too. —Matt Welty

Release Date: 02/07/2025
Price: $250

For a shoe as beloved as the original black and red Air Jordan 1, fans sure wanted to hate the 2025 release, which Jordan Brand claimed was the most accurate retro ever. First there was the controversy around the limited nature of the launch, with only 10,000 pairs reportedly available. Then there were criticisms of the material and shape—many coming from corners of the internet that had never actually been in the presence of an original pair, nor yet seen the retro in person. It turned out that the “Bred” Air Jordan 1 ’85 actually was pretty accurate. But part of that accuracy means coming to the realization that the shoe wasn’t necessarily as luxurious in 1985 as it’s been romanticized to be, and that individual examples weren’t even always consistent with each other. We all love the tumbled leather of the “Shattered Backboards,” but that’s just not how these shoes were originally made. So, while the shoe itself was quite good, and we do rank it high, it is a little hard to get too excited for a colorway that’s come out so many times before (especially when the luster around the legend of its banishment has worn thin—on the count of not being exactly true). —Zac Dubasik

Release Date: 02/08/2025
Price: $210

You could make a case that this is the best Air Jordan this year—even if we’re not quite putting it there. It’s definitely one of the most unexpected. Look, the “Black Metallic” 5 is one of the greatest Jordans ever. But it’s been some time since 5s have been as coveted as 3s, 4s, 6s, and 11s. But this year proved that the model still has juice. Jordan dropped the “Black Metallic” 5 again. But it wasn’t the same as the past, it wasn’t a true-to-original retro, it wasn’t a fake vintage pair. It was something new. The shoe has 3M piping on the upper. And the Nike Air on the heel wasn’t embroidered. It was 3M and glued on. It looks new and futuristic. Just like the 5s looked like when they came out back in 1990. Money, it’s gotta be the shoes! —Matt Welty

Release Date: 03/14/2025
Price: $225

Look, no sneaker is preordained for greatness, but well before Nigel Sylvester’s Air Jordan 4 “Brick by Brick” got a retail release, you could sense that it was gonna be a big deal. There was the in-person hype event in New York City in January, when people flocked to a corner in SoHo to watch a big Jordan-branded brick drive through the streets. There was the fashion show in that same month, where Sylvester first gave the world a good look at the shoe. Then there was the Breaking Bad-style train heist that had people cracking open freight containers in the Mojave Desert to abscond with Nike master cases of the shoes before the public release. Moments like these aren’t prerequisites for great sneakers—the actual shoes need to be impressive, novel, crispy—but they’re necessary for classics. Sylvester’s Jordan 4, a bold and sturdy interpretation of one of the best-ever Jordans, hits on both of those notes with a sneaker that’s neck breaking and an aura to enlarge it. It’s way too early to call the Nigel Sylvester x Air Jordan 4 “Brick by Brick” a classic, but it’s still the most exciting sneaker to release this year so far. —Brendan Dunne

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