Stop Sleeping on These Easy-to-Cop Air Jordan 1s

Calum Marsh
·5 min read

Photographs: Nike; Collage: Gabe Conte

Over the weekend, Jordan Brand released a new Air Jordan 1 High in what it calls the “Royal Reimagined” colorway—a two-tone high-top in black and blue suede that riffs on the fan-favorite “Royal” colorway last seen in 2017. The Royal was one of the original Air Jordan 1 styles put out in 1985, and over the years it’s earned a reputation among sneaker collectors as a certified classic, hailed as the black-and-blue yin to the Chicago’s red-and-white yang. The Royal Reimagined carries that legacy forward with premium suede materials for a crisp, clean look.

It’s a nice shoe. And it’s sitting.

The Royal Reimagined was available all weekend long in all sizes on the Nike website and the SNKRS app and almost every retailer’s online webstore. It’s still available in every season at the time of this writing. On StockX, whose fluctuating resale prices offer a relatively illuminating snapshot of demand, the Royal Reimagined has been tracking lower and lower numbers all weekend, with an average sale price Monday morning a few dollars under retail. If you want to buy this sneaker, you can buy a pair for $180 right now.

1 High OG "Royal Reimagined"

$180.00, Nike

That this is unusual probably goes without saying. Most Air Jordans sell out online within the first few hours of release. Air Jordan 1s will almost always sell out within minutes, and more popular colorways are in such high demand that every available pair is snapped up in seconds via random draw on Nike’s SNKRS app. With the very rare exception of universally disliked colorways and the odd mid-top, Fly Ease or Zoom CMFT variation, Jordan 1s are simply guaranteed to sell out and be available to the average consumer only as a matter of extraordinary luck or willingness to buy on the black market. This is how it’s pretty much always been.

There are plenty of reasons why the Royal Reimagined might not be selling out right away. Maybe it was released in higher quantities than normal. (Nike tends to vary its release numbers by model, with few explanations for which ones get how many.) Maybe consumers are holding out for another forthcoming shoe, or maybe we’re a little too close to Christmas for people to drop the cash. Maybe people really aren’t feeling the suede. Maybe the bottom is falling out of the sneaker market and the Jordan 1 will never be hard to get again. It could be basically anything. Who knows.

But the funny thing about the sneaker market is that availability is one the worst things that can possibly happen to a shoe. The fact that the Royal Reimagined didn’t sell out somehow means that it’s not worth buying—the fact that it’s sitting means it’s marked with the scarlet letter, that it carries the stench of death. Look at the comments beneath any post about the Royal Reimagined on Instagram and you will see thousands of sneakerheads complaining that this shoe was a flop. Admirers of the shoe are having a sudden change of heart. People who were on the fence about buying are deciding that it’s not for them.

Obviously if you’re a professional reseller it’s going to matter to you whether a given sneaker is in high demand. A shoe that sells out in seconds is almost certainly going to command a higher resale price, and one that’s available on Nike’s website will never sell for a price above retail. But why do regular sneaker fans—people who plan to buy these shoes to actually wear them—care so much about what sneakers sold out right away and which sneakers sat? Not every sneaker can be a Travis Scott. Hell, not every sneaker can even be a Lost and Found. And while every collector likes to go for grails to shore up their bona fides, at the end of the day, isn’t our own taste what really matters?

If Jordan Brand decided to re-release the original Chicago Jordan 1 next week in such large quantities that anyone in the world could walk into a Foot Locker and buy one for $180, would sneakerheads celebrate or complain? Would it be a resounding win for fans of what is widely considered one of the greatest shoes of all time, or would it instantly render the Chicago played-out and uncool? You have to hope that the beauty of the sneaker exists above and beyond these kinds of considerations—that the thing that makes a shoe great is a little more substantial than how hard it was to buy or how much it costs to buy it.

So it’s sitting. It’s still, to my eyes, a very nice Jordan. At the end of the day you have to decide for yourself. The Royal Reimagined wouldn’t be any different if it had sold out in seconds. The suede wouldn’t look cooler. The colorway wouldn’t look any better. How it’s selling is completely independent of how it actually looks on the shelf or on your foot.

Originally Appeared on GQ

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