With so many different Air Jordan shoes having been designed and launched since the 80s, it’s pretty cool to find out what is the most popular Air Jordan made?
But here is where it gets tough.
How do you measure which is the most popular? Is it the shoe that is most desired? Do you go by sales figures? Do you look at the resale price and decide that the higher the resale price, then the more popular and in demand it must be?
None of this is easy. In saying that, it’s still going to be interesting to look at a few ideas or figures to try to work out the answer to this particular question.
The Answer
As we said at the outset, this is not an easy question to answer. So, with that in mind, there are a few key points we need to mention.
You see, you have the most popular according to sales. You have the most popular according to the resale value and how prized they are. Then you have the most popular according to design, comfort, how great they are on the basketball court.
Basically, the list goes on and on.
So, let’s try and break this down into more manageable chunks. Hopefully, you will then be in a position whereby you have a much better understanding of where things stand with Air Jordan shoes in the popularity stakes.
Popular According to Sales
While getting accurate sales figures is not always easy, we can look at one source to give us at least some indication as to which Air Jordan is the most popular according to numbers sold.
That source is Ebay, and there’s data out there covering almost 20 years when it comes to the types of Air Jordan shoes that have been consistently the most purchased on the platform.
When we look at this data, you see that the Air Jordan 11s are the most popular shoes from a sales perspective on Ebay. Now, that may not be the best source, but it’s something we can actually measure.
They have had the most pairs sold, but it has to be stressed that this is only online. It may be a different story when it comes to pairs that have been sold in shops. That is something that basically only Nike themselves will know.
This also generally applies on the resale market as a whole. It seems that people cannot get enough of the Air Jordan 11s, and it’s easy to understand why as they are a seriously impressive shoe.
Most Popular From An Iconic Perspective
If we instead look at something from an iconic perspective, then we get a different answer when it comes to the most popular.
Here, it’s the original Air Jordan 1 Chicago that stands out. These shoes were last released way back in 2015, and this is a shoe that collectors really want to own.
This clamour to own a pair of retro Jordan 1 Chicago shoes has seen the price soar, and that only adds to its overall popularity. You will end up paying well over the normal asking price to own a pair of Air Jordan 1 Chicago, but then you will end up making your money back on them in the future should you wish to sell them once again.
Also, the Air Jordan 1 is the most popular if you are going for something that has authentic details. However, that’s not much of a surprise when you consider it is the original shoe.
Most Popular for Basketball
Even though so many shoes will perform pretty well on the basketball court, it is the Air Jordan XI that is the most popular in this area.
This is due to the way in which parts of the NBA really took them on back in 1995 which then led to a significant rise in their popularity away from the professional circuit as well.
Thanks to this popularity, it does mean you will end up paying more than you may have intended to when it comes to owning these shoes. That applies even to the newer incarnations that are out there on the market as well as those that come from way back in 1995 when they came out.
Most Popular Around the World
But if you are looking for something that was popular around the world, then we can turn our attention to the Air Jordan IV.
These shoes were the first ones to be launched on a global release, and it was partly due to the Space Jam movie as that really did seem to propel the popularity of these shoes.
That has meant that the Air Jordan IV is one of the most popular from a worldwide point of view. It has seen impressive sales in various countries around the world, but you can still end up paying over the odds when it comes to owning a pair.
Overall Conclusion
So as you have seen, this is not an easy question to answer. In fact, there’s not one single answer that everyone could go ahead and agree with.
That is simply because there are so many determining factors that are included in deciding which Air Jordan is actually the best, or the most popular.
We have looked at only several categories that are directly related to the different incarnations of Air Jordan shoes, and you can see how difficult it is to come to that overall conclusion.
At the end of the day, there hasn’t really been a poor Air Jordan shoe at any point. They are all good, and have achieved some really impressive sales over time. Even having them re-released on different years doesn’t make much of a difference when it comes to how popular they are.
The key thing, if you want to own a popular pair of Air Jordan shoes, is to make sure you choose the right pair for whatever it is that you want them to do.