Introduction
Today, we’ve got a detailed look and breakdown on these bad boys: the Military Blue Air Jordan 4 Rep. And yes, Military Blue is the correct color; I don’t know where “industrial” came from, I don’t know who told whoever was on Sneakers Live to say that, but on the box, it says off-white Military Blue.
A Legacy Revisited
Its first retro was back in 2006, its second retro was in 2012, and now we’ve got the 2024 Edition. However, there is another; back in 2021, there was a Golf Edition. So, a CLE bottom, and I don’t know if you guys remember fusions at all, but in 2009, there was an Air Force One Air Jordan 4 mix-up, and it didn’t look half bad. This colorway right here is an original from 1989; it was the only blue colorway within the lineup. We had the White Cement, the Black Cement now known as “Bred,” as well as the Fire Red, so this was definitely the oneReplica Shoes that was like a departure from the original other three.
Assessing the Retro
Now, is this a perfect retro? Right off the bat, I’m going to say no. There’s a couple of things in here that I’m a little bit surprised with, one specifically, which we’ll get into very soon. But for those of you guys that are OG enthusiasts, you might just be a big fan of the box and everything. So, the box is an original style package; however, the paper is not. The black paper is not in there this time; instead, it’s just a splatter print paper. I don’t know if that’s going to bother anybody, but I’m just letting you guys know. On top of that, they did include the Nike Air tag, which was an original feature. I think that looks great. They even, what would you call these things, whatever this little band is right here, instead of the chain that sometimes comes with Jordan 4s, that’s exactly what they’ve done here. And again, this is just kind of like an original feature.
Comfort and Performance
So, I think that it’s like a really great attention to detail. Should I just say what the disappointing aspect was just right off the bat, just get it out of the way? So, the comfort is not there. If you guys are excited about, like, this new shape and everything like that, which looks like the old shape, and by old shape, I mean original shape, the 1989 shape, if you will, then you’re right there with me, I’m super stoked. I think that these look good, like I can’t even lie. Like, why can’t they all be like this? But comfort is just not there. If you’ve been excited for, like, the SBs and which were mad comfortable, and you’re not getting that here, they do feel a little bit more in line with the last Black and Red, or Black Cement, Bred, whatever it is that you want to call them. If anything, maybe they feel a little bit less comfortable than even those. But granted, I wear those often, so my pair is broken in, so it might be just like an off comparison until these are broken in.
And I think the main culprit for the lack of comfort comes from the insole. It’s a dream cell insole, and that’s the thing that I’m just really disappointed in. And no, I don’t mean that I’m disappointed in the release; I’m not disappointed in the shoe whatsoever. It’s the only aspect of the shoe that I feel is not perfect. I think a review needs to go over pros and cons, and I think too many people expect every review to just tell you exactly what you want to hear, that like, yeah, this is a hot drop, you should go get it. I’m not that guy, and I’ve never been that guy.
Examining the Design and Build
I love these shoes so much that I do look at them through a very critical lens, because I want this to be exactly what I think they should be, and this is 99.9% right there. Had that insole been polyurethane, it’d have been 100, dude, like they straight up would have been amazing. They still are amazing, but they’re just not comfortable, that’s all. So, the outsole, it’s perfect. There’s herringbone on there, it’s placed in multiple different directions. It’s the first time herringbone was placed on an outsole of an Air Jordan flagship shoe. So, if you look back at the original three launches, the one, the two, and the three, none of them had traditional herringbone outsoles, that is until this guy.
The midsole is polyurethane, and again, it’s not the same exact feel that the Nike SB Jordan 4 release like actually was, you know what I mean? Those were slightly tweaked; that was actually made by the SB department and not the Jordan department. So, two separate things, even though they did borrow the overall shape and the work that the SB team did to reshape the shoe, but they didn’t carry over the Comfort aspect. So yeah, polyurethane midsole, inside of the forefoot is an encapsulated Air sole unit, and then in the rear is a visible Air sole unit. Again, the insole is dream cell, it’s an original style insole liner, though, so you got that nice blue on there with the Nike Air branding.
And then the materials and overall build or shape, I mean, that’s the part that I’m just excited for, like this looks so good, it looks like somebody went and grabbed these out of 1989 and brought them to 2024, that’s how good these look. Keep in mind that the upper is not perfectly white, I don’t know how well you’re going to be able to see the contrast between the midsole here, the paint, and then the upper, but the upper is off-white, that’s the way that I believe they were in 1989, that’s how the 2006 retro was, but that one was more of like a cream color, not necessarily off-white, and then the 2012, if my memory serves me correct, I think that one was like straight up white.
Detailed Analysis
Now, I have a quick review and pickup, and it is on the 2012 version of the Air Jordan 4 retro in the Military Blue colorway. So what we’ve got here is a very decent leather; it’s got a slight shine to it like the actual off-white or white material. They’re not super thick cuts, but it is a nice leather nonetheless. I will say that the reimagines were a little bit softer feeling in hand, but that doesn’t mean quality, it just means that it was a softer material.This one has a different coat, we’ve got more of a natural kind of like original style polyurethane coating on top of the leather, which gives it its overall look and sheen and all of that stuff. I think that it looks so good. The toe rand here is a very, very smooth nubuck, it has like a slight variance when you run your finger across it where the grain or the hairs can kind of move the fibers if you will. I just think that it looks fantastic.
Summary
Reimagine Air Jordan 3, the White Cements, those visually looked again kind of like this, where you just like took them right out of a magazine print ad and brought them into today, that’s how these guys look and feel. They do have the die-cut lines at the toe, they got one at the toe rand as well as at the base of the lace, some originals I’ve seen with that, some of them I haven’t, I don’t know if it’s just that the die-cut lines were like faint or they got worn out or whatever, but either way, they’re on here now. In addition to the herringbone being an emphasis as far as traction is concerned, breathability was Tinker’s other concern, Tinker Hatfield to be exact. Tinker actually was the one that designed from the Air Jordan 3 all the way through the Air Jordan 15. He’s had a hand in select other models afterwards, but it’s been very loose, so it’s not like he was the lead designer like he was on something like this, but breathability was a main aspect or focal point, you could see that in the original sketches and concepts for the shoe. We have a really cool netting that covers the micro mesh that’s underneath it. I will say this little lockdown wing right here looks a little bit different than what I remember, I remember these being more gray, these look more like they’re like part of the upper, you know what I mean, like that off-white look instead of gray. So, I don’t know if that’s truly like the original, I’m just saying that it looks a little bit different, but either way, you still got those lockdown wings there, you got them at the base of the lace as well, they remind me of basketball nets or crowns, I don’t know what they’re officially called, but to me, they look like basketball nets. The tongue and the flight patch is perfection. They did slim the tongue down by the way, so they’re not as fat and puffy as the reimagines, those they kind of like copied and pasted the Nike SB Air Jordan 4, which is not an original feature. The original tongues were actually slimmed down, and then the Nike Air tab, it’s gorgeous, and no, it’s not like the Nike SB, that one and the PSGs were the only two with super soft rubber tabs, while these ones are not serrated blades or anything like that, they’re not like super hard, they’re not soft and rubbery like those. As far as fit is concerned, I would go true to size, whatever you typically wear, especially with Air Jordan 4s, that’s what I would go with. They look so good on feet, I can’t even like, I can’t say how good these look enough, I really wish the insole was polyurethane, but we can get past that. But with all that being said, what is today’s question of the day? What is your favorite shoe you have reviewed this year, and what shoe are you looking forward to reviewing? Oh, I was not prepared for this. Okay, so this is going to be a loaded answer, I know, I apologize, but there’s a few. Okay, so bear with me, one of my favorites was one of Nike’s best takedown shoes of all time. I love the Son of Gloves, I love the actual Gloves, I think that those two shoes, I don’t know, like when I look at them, they look so nice, they just remind me of way back in the day, like in the ’98, I would just have specific memories as a kid, as a high schooler, seeing all kinds of people with all kinds of colorways of that shoe, not me, but you know, everybody else, and it was awesome, so I really liked being able to talk about that. I loved being able to talk about the Flight 89s, the little brother some people consider of these guys right here, mainly because I didn’t have to completely bash the shoe, like they finally fixed the things that I thought were so wrong with them. They’re not perfect either, but it’s better than what we’ve been getting, so like you got to give them kudos for that. Surprisingly enough, the Jordan 2/3, I just think that’s a fun shoe, I know that people don’t like hybrids anymore, but I still like them, you guys are definitely not going to like this, it’s these, people don’t like these either, and that’s cool to each his own, but you know, I’ve been around since the brand’s inception, and I’ve watched it grow, I’ve watched it stumble, I’ve watched it fail many times and all that stuff, but some of this original team stuff is just some of my favorite, this is my price point or was my price point as a kid, and yeah, being able to finally like get these in hand myself was just really cool, especially since they had the, I don’t know what you call these little pins, those usually are missing, so yeah, it’s not a modern release, but there you go, I will say the most fun that I’ve had or one of my favorites that I’ve done recently is the Book One performance review, so now what shoe are you looking forward to reviewing, that’s the thing, it was these, every time I’d see like new pictures of these I’d be like, dude, they look so good, you know what I’m saying, so like I wanted to know if it was just like angles, beauty shots, or whatever, if it was actually true, like did they make these damn near perfect, and the answer is yes, they’re good, like they’re so good, but now that I have these in, I guess the only other answer would be the black cements, I want to see what those look like back true to original form, but yeah, that’s that’s just me though, I’m an old guy, so I like the old stuff, I know that some people are looking at the brand being like put out something new, but every time they do it’s not good, if
this is all they’ve got I’ll take this, so feel free to answer the question yourself, what was your favorite shoe reviewed, I guess doesn’t have to be new, so whatever we’ve reviewed since January until now feel free to sound off below and let us know, also what Rep Shoes are you uh looking forward to getting a review or is it just looking forward to in general for you, it was reviewing, oh okay, well I guess it’s one of the same, but with all that being said, thank you so much for reading, thanks for all the support, let us know what you think about these down below in the comment section, were you able to hit on the shock drop, if you were, did you get your pair in and if you did, how do they look man, these looking great, not comfortable but they look great, thank you once again for being here, we greatly appreciate it, we will catch you guys on the next one, so until then, have a good one.
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