Nike SB Jordan 4 - FAQs

There’s been a lot of noise online (and in our inboxes - please stop!) about the upcoming Nike SB collaboration with Jordan, by our count this is the 11th joint outing from the two brands (we could be wrong though), but it is definitely the first time they’ve worked on a Jordan 4. Rumour has it that these are the closest any retro has come in terms of shape to the originals, unfortunately we weren't able to get hold of an original pair to do a side by side comparison but thanks to our pal JWJ we have the next best thing - some (sadly crumbling) ’99 retros.

As expected, the commentary on social media has been pretty polarised, from critical to complimentary, scathing and amusing, and peppered with lots of questions. So we thought we’d filter through the comments and attempt to answer some of the questions (with what we know at this point).

So far as we can tell, these are the comment section FAQs:

'The SB connection is so random.'

On the face of it, it does seem a little random but SB does have history with the Jordan brand, and as with more or less everything Nike SB related there is more to it... in the late 80's when Tinker Hatfield was designing the Jordan 4, the developer he worked with was none other than Sandy Bodecker, who would later go on to lead the introduction of Nike SB. So, the connection does run a little deeper than is obvious at first.

'Any information on what makes this “SB” Jordan 4 better for skating and different from a regular Jordan 4?'

You remember all those Nike riders who were skating in Jordan 4's last year? They were wear testing them and suggesting improvements that would make them better for skateboarding, so this model is a new iteration of the Jordan 4, an SB version. The most significant updates are that the eyestays, ‘wings’ and heel tab have been molded from a soft rubber instead of plastic, and the midsole has been updated so that it’s more flexible with better board feel, notably the forefoot air unit has been removed completely.

'$225 (£205) is outrageous!'

It’s definitely a lot of money, and expensive for a skate shoe, so they’re not for everyone. To give the price a bit of context, when Jordan 4’s launched in 1989 they were the most expensive basketball shoes on the market at $110 (£95), just taking inflation in to account that would be $270 (£230) in todays money. Also, skate shoes started hitting the £100 mark in the late 90’s which would be around £175 today, so whilst they are undoubtedly expensive the price isn’t exactly unprecedented.

'Wack gum bottom.'

We saw a lot of comments from people who definitely don’t like the gum areas on the sole, we have to disagree though - gum is the best for skateboarding, add that to the list of things that make them more skate friendly.

'How the hell do they expect anyone to skate in these?'

See above regarding the modifications which make them more skate-able, also - given the right motivation people can skate in pretty much anything, from Timberlands to FlipFlops. Anyone who was skating in the late 90's could tell you, at the height of the bulky/tech skate shoe era, people were skating in almost literal bricks. Go watch The Storm.

'Is this the only J4 SB we’re getting?'

Yes, probably, but what do we know…

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We’ll be posting up all release information through the usual channels in the coming days, in the meantime don’t forget to sign up to our newsletter for info about our latest and greatest products, plus other content such as this interview about the Nike SB x Doyenne collection.