Is Jordan Brand Dead?

By Stephen Pierce

Michael Jordan is the first player to dominate not just the basketball court but everything off the court as well, specifically with the Jordan Brand line with Nike. In 2017 alone Jordan Brand generated $3.1 billion in revenue in the 2017 fiscal year. MJ took home well over $100 Million of that. Jordan Brand will always be profitable but for how long?

Via Complex

Jordan brand has been a staple in all of our lives since the 1990s with so many iconic color ways such as the Black Cement 3s or the Concord 11s they have became an essential part of the culture. Jordan brand was the perfect blend of performance and style. Not only was the technology innovative when they first released but they became quintessential for style.

Via Pintrest

Years passed and they still had the same affect. Around 2012-2014 Jordan Brand continued to drop absolute heat with the Jordan 4 “Toro Bravo” the Entire Doernbecher collection and the “Fear” pack just to name a few and during that time period it seemed as though they could do no wrong

But in 2015 things completely changed. Not only did we see an absurd price increase to $190 from Jordan brand but we saw the beginning of the new wave, the dad shoe. February 23 was the first release of the Yeezy line that would change the landscape of sneakers for years to come.

In 2015 we saw some iconic sneakers drop that came from Jordan brand such as the Jordan 1 “Shattered Backboard” as well as the global release of the Jordan 10 “OVO”. Those two sneakers are definitely fire and some of the best they released in the past decade but everything else that year from Jordan were lackluster and a lot of them sat or even hit Nike outlet stores.

Fast forward to 2019 and things have not got much better. Since 2017 what they have been doing is rereleasing popular retros with the Nike Air logo on the back such as the Jordan 6 “Infrared” and the upcoming Jordan 4 “Breds”. Those sneakers have and will do very well in sales but that makes up for very little of their overall sales.

The Travis Scott collaboration and the “OFF-White” Jordan 1s are keeping Jordan popular with the younger generation and the “hype beasts” but outside of those they have been missing with almost every release. Almost all the general releases have sat and have not caused nearly any of the hype they once did.

Via Sole Premise

Jordan making a comeback to the days of old are very hard to see right now. The reason for that is the new generations do not know impactful Michael Jordan was. Most only know him as the person who they say is better than LeBron James and that is far from the man he is.

What Jordan brand needs to do is first and far most lower the prices. The prices are way to high for the quality of sneaker we are receiving. They want to say it is for nostalgia purposes but the majority of the drops are either new color ways with a dumb story behind it or old retros that should have never came back such as the Jordan 18s.

Will a comeback be impossible, I would say no. But they need to return to the time when Jordans were exclusive and had buzz not this crap that they are doing now. Jordan brand needs to rebrand and get back on track on what made them so great and so iconic.