An All-Time Great Air Jordan Is Finally Returning In Its Purest Possible Form

Sit still for a second. The birds are singing. The sun is shining. The Air Jordan 4 ‘Bred’ is returning. Nature is healing. Everything, for once, is exactly where it should be. The ‘Bred’ (short for “black and red”) is one of the original Air Jordan 4 colorways from 1989. Created by legendary Nike designer Tinker Hatfield, it came in slick black nubuck with hits of gray and red throughout.

Michael Jordan famously wore a pair when he hit The Shot over Craig Ehlo to knock the Cleveland Cavaliers out of the 1989 NBA Playoffs—so, yeah, there’s a bit of lore there too. Unsurprisingly, Jordan Brand has brought it back a few times over the past few years. There was a retro in 1999, followed by versions in 2008 and 2012, and then another in 2019, which finally brought the OG “Nike Air” branding back to the heel.

Then, in 2024, we got the ‘Bred Reimagined,’ which swapped the classic nubuck for leather. The less said about that one, the better. Because two years later, Jordan Brand is going back to the good stuff. The ‘Bred’ is decked out in black nubuck again, with gray eyelets, red accents around the sole, and the all-important “Nike Air” stamped across the back. Even the Nike branding on the outsole is returning.

Basically, if you looked at the ‘Bred Reimagined’ and thought, “Look how they massacred my boy,” congrats: this one’s for you. And there’s something quite nice about that. The AJ4 has been messed with, remixed, collabed on, and reworked in just about every way possible over the last few years. Some of those experiments have been great! Some… not so much. The ‘Bred’ doesn’t really need any of that.

It’s been one of the best Air Jordans on the planet for 37 years. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The Air Jordan 4 ‘Bred’ is expected to restock on November 27 at Nike, the SNKRS app, and select stockists globally. That date is Black Friday, by the way, which feels extremely appropriate. This story originally appeared on British GQ.

Source: www.gq.com