SELECT Preview: Exploring the Air Jordan XX9

Whether Michael is playing or not, his latest shoes will always come with lofty expectations, and his brand will never rest when it comes to aiming to create worthy contributions to the unrivaled Air Jordan legacy. Earlier this month, Jordan Brand unveiled the long-awaited 29th installment of the Air Jordan signature franchise, complete with a media event in NYC and a flurry of visuals and info regarding the latest addition to the family. Now that the dust has settled, we’ve all had our first impressions and some time to soak it all in, so we thought we’d circle back for a closer look at the Air Jordan XX9, its materials and technology, and the impact it will have on the market when it hits store shelves this Fall.

If you were expecting the Air Jordan XX9 to look like a pair of IIIs or XIs with your skinny jeans, you’re still not getting it. Jordan Brand has undying reverence for their heritage, but their past is the past and they’re looking to push the limits of what can be done in the realm of performance innovation today and beyond. Air Jordans have always been about making the pinnacle basketball shoe for the court, so let’s stop expecting them to go backwards and just enjoy the ride as they continue to make ambitious contributions to the on-court experience.

LIFTING THE CURTAIN

After falling victim to some less than flattering sample leaks with previous models, Jordan Brand took painstaking measures with the XX9 (and XX8 before it) to ensure that the first time we saw the shoe, the images were coming from them and presented the way they envisioned and intended. The result was a crisp, clean presentation of not one, but two launch colorways with some very contrasting aesthetic approaches.

With one pair done in a very simple tonal look and the other featuring some more complex patterns and panels, Jordan established the versatility of their performance-woven upper innovations right out of the gate. Inspired by a trip to Italy, JB designers learned about certain state-of-the-art weaving techniques that would translate perfectly into tailoring a shoe for high performance basketball purposes.

WEAVE vs. KNIT

In one single layer, the XX9 design team was able to create structure and support in all the right places. Like Nike’s Flyknit technology, the weaving process on the XX9 allows for the intricate engineering of just about every millimeter of the shoe to make certain areas stiffer or softer, more breathable or more reinforced. But while some of the basic concepts are very similar, JB’s performance-woven upper has some drastic differences that set the two significantly apart.

Flyknit is created through thicker knitted threads while the XX9’s upper is done with a super thin weave. While that might not sound all that different, think about the difference between a knitted wool sweater or a Champion crewneck. While they’re similar in general theory, they’re miles apart in the way they feel, look, and flex. In this case, the XX9 is obviously the crewneck and provides more of a rugged battle-ready shell with a futuristic look to boot.

PERFORMANCE-WOVEN POTENTIAL

The other intriguing application of the XX9’s performance-woven upper is its ability to render graphics and patterns at photo-level quality. At the unveiling event, Jordan Brand showed off graphic swatches and tapestries that from a distance appeared to be screen printed, but turned out to actually be the same woven material that makes up the XX9 upper. While the first few colorways we’ve seen all take advantage of those possibilities in

different ways, it seems safe to assume that we’ll see them push the limits of graphic treatments over the course of the model’s run. Also of note is the way the texture, weave, and to some degree, structure, can drastically differ from one version to the next. With the clean one-piece palette as a starting point, the possibilities for how each colorway takes shape are pretty much infinite and it should be fun to see how creative JB can get with it.

FLIGHT WEB & FLIGHT PLATE

Beneath the woven upper of the Air Jordan XX9 lies another JB innovation, dubbed Flight Web. These webbed straps integrate with the lacing system to wrap your foot in a way that not only provides natural motion flexibility and lockdown, but also combines with the thin upper layer to helps to create a comfy and breathable sock-like feel with all the necessary support and stability.

Moving down towards the sole unit, the XX9 brings back the widely acclaimed energy return technology known as Flight Plate, but in new and improved fashion. Using the same combination of a Pebax moderator plate between Zoom cushioning units, the XX9 tweaks the formula by adding a narrow midfoot outsole bridge to connect the forefoot and heel for a smoother transition under foot.

THE JORDAN (XX9) FUTURE

Rather than sticking with its recent stretch of All Star Weekend launches, the Air Jordan XX9 will instead make its retail debut in September in preparation of the start of a new season. We’ve already seen the shoe make its NBA Playoffs debut on the feet of Russell Westbrook, but the rest of the world will have to wait until Fall to get a pair on their feet. That still gives us a while to wait, but at least we know what we’re in store for as we wait for the XX9 to go toe to toe with the other top performance basketball offerings set to hit the market around the same time.

In the meantime, it appears that Jordan Brand has already subliminally geared us up for the XX9 with the introduction of the Jordan Future. Woven uppers, killer carbon fiber-outfitted sole, sound familiar? The Future signaled the dawn of a new, more sophisticated approach for JB, and the Air Jordan XX9 feels like a worthy next step on the performance end of that spectrum. If the small handful of different colorways we’ve already seen are any indication, there should be some pretty interesting things to come from the Air Jordan XX9.