Every Air Jordan Ever Released* (served 5 different ways)

*Except Ones. There are just too many Air Jordan Ones.

But for models II – XX9 we’ve built a comprehensive analysis (five analyses, actually) showing every release, by model, plotted against several different data points. These data points include year of release, month of release, OG vs. retro, new colorway vs. re-released color, average retail price, average resell price, low top, part of a pack and more.

Methodology:

• We identified 578 Air Jordan releases from 1986 through 2014 which were released in men sizes. This includes pairs released in large women sizes that could be worn by men.
• Ones, samples, PEs and other “non-releases” were excluded
• Any errors or omissions are simply that.  Our research team worked overtime on this one, but with 28 models, 29 years and 578 releases, it wouldn’t be out of the question that we missed something.  If you find any, please let us know and we’ll make the changes.

Key Insights:

• In total, there have been 578 numbered Air Jordans released, not counting Ones, PEs, samples, or alternate variations such as the 2011 Flights, 2012 Lites or XX9 SEs.
• OG releases run diagonal from upper left to lower right (in blue text) and are 37% (211) of all releases.
• Retro releases are located everywhere except on the OG line (black/white text).  Retros account for the other 63% (367) total released.
• Outside of the five 23^rd anniversary years, there have been eight years in which Jordan Brand released 8 or more pairs of one model. 2001 was the pinnacle: twelve Jordan 11s dropped during its first retro year and introduction of the 11 Lows

The above chart provides great detail and allows us to extract many key insights, but is not great for identifying high level trends.  A better view might be to look at the aggregate stats by year and model.  We’ve decided to break them down by OG vs. Retro:

Key Insights:

• By year, the big picture is obvious:  Jordan releases have been growing every year, with 2013 and 2014 being the more prolific ever.  Does that mean 2015 will have more than 50?
• By model, the big picture is the difference in release patterns for the core sneakerhead models (II – XIV) versus the second half of the collection (XV – XX9) contrasts starkly.  For another view of that same concept, the following chart highlights the differences:

Key Insights:

• Unless you found this page by Googling “Camp Jordan” (which apparently is a YMCA in Maine) nothing on this chart should be news.  But that doesn’t make it any less amazing when you plot the data next to each other.
• The core sneakerhead models (II- XIV) account for 31% of all OG releases, but 97% of all retro releases.
• That means that the Jordans XV-XX9 account for 69% of OG releases, but only 3% of retros. That’s a total of ten retros – eight of which came during the Countdown Pack series.
• Rumors swirl that 2015 will be the year JB finally crosses XIV for some retros. Let’s hope so. We could use the variety.

The OG vs. Retro construct is just one of many ways we can classify and quantify the 578 Air Jordans. The following chart adds seven new data points for both model and year:

The seven new data points are: unique colorway vs. re-released color; low top; part of a pack; tracked by Campless; average retail price and average deadstock resell price. We created two different views of the seven data points: by model and by year. The black boxes note interesting insights:

Key Insights:

Year Chart:

• In 2014 there were 41 new colorways released.  If we check back to the first chart we can see there were only 9 OGs released. This means that of the 41 retros released, there were 32 new colors created. Take, for example, the Jordan 6 Champagne, Cigar, Slam Dunk, MVP Spiz’ike, Toro and Brazil World Cup, to name just a few. The 9 re-released colors are easy:  four Jordan 6s (Sport Blue, Carmine, White Infrared, Black Infrared), Black Toe 14, Grey Toe 13, Powder 10, White/Red 2 and the Legend Blue 11 (coming soon).

• There were two big years for low-tops:  2001 and 2004.  Ten pairs were released each year.  Eight of the ten in 2001 were 11s.

Model Chart:

• As just mentioned 11s dominate lows. In total there have been 26 low top 11 releases – 18 more than the next closest (13s with 8).
• No shoe has been part of a pack more often than the 6, which has had nine such shoes. They are: Cigar & Champagne (Celebration Pack); Golden Moments Pack (with 7); Brazil World Cup Pack (with CP3); 2010 Infrared Pack (White & Black); Countdown Pack (with 17); Defining Moments Pack (with 11); and Slam Dunk Pack (with SuperFly). The Jordan 9 is second with seven shoes in packs, but six of those were part of the Kilroy Pack.
• Perhaps the most surprising stat is the top three Jordan models with the highest average resell price: 17 ($404); 16 ($364); 18 ($316). At first glance, this is crazy. But upon closer inspection, this makes sense. Resell prices are based on average price of deadstock sneaker sales on eBay over the 12 months ending October 14, 2014. And because the last (and only) time a 16, 17 or 18 was retro’d was 2008, finding a deadstock pair is going to come at a premium. There are five other models that were also only retro’d in 2008 (15, 19-22), but Campless does not yet track four of them (19-22).

The final analysis is model by month of release.  There were 45 releases for which we could not identify the month of release, so you’ll notice the total is 533, and not 578 like on the previous charts.  Otherwise, this is a comprehensive view showing which month Jordan Brand likes to drop which models:

Key Insights:

• The top three months for total Jordan releases are: June (61 releases = 11.4% of total); February (56, 10.5%); November (55, 10.3%),
• The lowest months are January and March, which each had 31 releases (5.8%)
• There were six instances of at least seven releases of the same model in one month. The Jordan 11 is the clear winner here: 10 releases in December.

And there you have it.  Every Air Jordan ever released, except for Ones.  If anyone wants to put together the above data for every AJ1 which ever released, we’ll gladly do a Part 2.

But assuming we stick with II – XX9, what additional categories or analysis would you like to see done with this data?

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