Who doesn’t know him? Michael Jordan, the name that rings a bell all over the world. If you don’t know him for his amazing basketball game, you’ll surely know him from other things, such as the Jordan basketball shoes, Space Jam, the McDonald’s commercial or the Chicago Bulls.
Nike
Many people think Jordan is a brand of its own, but that’s not the case: Air Jordan started out as a subcategory of Nike and has grown into a bigger line of its own, but it still belongs to Nike. It’s also pretty funny to think that for the first deal he signed with Nike, Michael Jordan only received $500,000 over 5 years. Although that’s a huge amount of money, it was relatively little compared to what Nike Basketball makes from it, because in May 2016 the Jordan brand was valued at 2.8 BILLION.
Hype
The impact of Michael Jordan and his Air Jordan line at Nike was huge. So huge that no fewer than 34 different Jordan models have been released, and that’s just the shoe models, because on top of that, an estimated 1,200-plus different colorways have been released. What Jordan and his design team have done incredibly well all this time is keep following today’s trends and applying them in their own way to their shoes or their marketing. You can see it right now, with the Air Jordan 1s hugely popular again and Jordan sneakers and basketball shoes still in high demand.
Exclusive
As I said, Air Jordan has released a huge number of colorways and collaborations, so there are also a huge number of exclusive pairs. Below, we’ve put together a list of the most expensive and most exclusive Jordan sneakers ever made.
10. Air Jordan 8 Retro Kentucky Madness PE | $7,000
The Air Jordan 8 Retro Kentucky Madness made their debut on none other than Drake when he showed up at a Kentucky Wildcats college game in 2017. Because they were shown off on Drake’s feet, these sneakers also became almost impossible to buy, but if you managed to get a pair, the payoff was definitely worth it.
9. Air Jordan 5 Retro Transformers | $7,471
To celebrate the release of the movie Transformers: The Last Knight in 2017, Jordan teamed up with Mark Wahlberg to make an exclusive promo sample of the Air Jordan 5 shoe. The final shoe was only given to the cast of the movie, and because that made it such an exclusive shoe, the price shot up like a rocket.
8. Air Jordan 3 Retro DJ Khaled Grateful | $7,733
It’s no secret that DJ Khaled places great value on owning special and exclusive Jordans. After a while, his love for the shoe turned into a collaboration. After DJ Khaled’s “Grateful” album in 2017, Khaled got his first signature sneaker of his own as a gift from Jordan. The sneakers themselves were never officially released, which is why their price has gone up so much.
7. Air Jordan 3 Retro DJ Khaled Father of Asahd | $8,759
Another one! It almost seems like a kind of tradition: every time DJ Khaled releases an album, he gets a new signature shoe from Jordan as a gift. So when the “Father of Asahd” album came out, Khaled also got a new Jordan 3, and these shoes were never officially released either.
6. Air Jordan 3 Retro Legends of Summer | $9,250
The moment Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake announced that they would be doing the Legends of Summer Tour together in 2013, we knew it was something special. What not everyone expected was that Jordan was working on a colorway with Justin Timberlake himself. One of those colorways is the red Legends of Summer retro 3. These were officially released at the time, but stock was limited, so they sold out quickly.
5. Air Jordan 4 Retro Eminem Carhartt | $9,971
In November 2015, Jordan teamed up with Eminem on an exclusive colorway of the Air Jordan 4 to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Shady Records. These shoes were only available for a short time on eBay, and all the money the shoes sold for went to the Marshall Mathers Foundation, an organization founded by Eminem himself that tries to get Detroit’s youth off the streets.
4. Air Jordan 4 Retro Wahlburgers | $11,000
The shoes were first spotted in a few of Mark Wahlberg’s restaurants. Many people thought it would be a regular new colorway, until Mark later admitted it was a collaboration between Jordan and his own fast-food chain. Although the Jordan sneakers were never officially released, Mark did make 30 pairs of the shoes available to the public through a raffle.
3. Air Jordan 4 Retro Undefeated 2018 Sample | $15,750
Almost 13 years after the official release of the Air Jordan 4 X UNDFTD, images of the so-called sample of the shoe’s first edition surfaced online, which sent the internet wild and had everyone wondering whether the shoes would get a re-release. The answer was No… although the sample edition of the Air Jordan 4 does still exist, it’s so limited that it has become one of Jordan’s most exclusive shoes.
2. Air Jordan 4 Retro Eminem Encore 2017 | $18,000
The Jordan 4 Retro Eminem Encore 2017 is a shoe that was only made available for a short time: Eminem had decided to start a raffle for the shoe on StockX to raise money for the Marshall Mathers Foundation. Reportedly only 23 pairs of the shoe were made, hence the absurdly high price.
1. Air Jordan 12 Flu Game (Signed) – $104,000
The “Flu Game”: for every NBA fan, an impressive moment in basketball history. Michael Jordan showed his true strength and perseverance on the night he faced the Utah Jazz in Game 5 in 1997: he had come down with the flu that night and felt terrible, but he still decided to play on and take the win, after which Michael Jordan went on to become NBA champion for the 5th time. After the game, Jordan personally gave his shoes to the Chicago Bulls ball boy, who later put them up for auction with a starting bid of $5,000. A few bids later, the shoes sold for a record $104,000
