 Today we're going to be taking a deep dive into the Air Jordan 9 powder blue. We recently saw the second retro iteration of this model and this is actually the first time we've seen it like this since it's OG form. So we'll be looking at all the details of the 2024 retro, the 2010 retro and the original from 1994. It's crazy to think that 30 years ago the original Air Jordan 9 came out and we've seen so many different iterations from then to now but we got to talk about the original four color ways first. We had the white and black Air Jordan 9 which was seen with Michael Jordan actually wearing these at practice and also in the Space Jam movie. We had the olive Air Jordan 9 which is a huge fan favorite and we can't wait to see retro later this year. The dark charcoal Air Jordan 9 which is low key a sleeper and last but not least the powder blue Air Jordan 9. Now when it comes to these four color ways in particular the black and white came out in 1993 and then after that we saw the other three color ways released in 1994. So a lot of people consider this model to be a 1994 release but it was kind of like a hybrid and a release between the two years. Now a lot of people consider the Air Jordan 9 as a sneaker that Jordan never wore but it's actually quite hilarious because we saw him wearing them at practice and technically those were all in the court and then also he warmed during his baseball career just happened to be a cleat bottom and if we want to get really technical he did wear the cool gray nines in 2002 when he played for the Wizards and I bring this all up because Michael Jordan retired right after the Air Jordan 8. Everyone knows exactly what the circumstances are right now in terms of my decision not to play the game of basketball in the NBA. And we can't forget to mention MJ's statue unveiling in front of the United Center and legend has it Tinker was the one that decided the Jordan 9 be on the statue representing him being a global icon which later in 2015 that's where we saw the statue Air Jordan 9s that also featured the date of the revealing of the statue inside the tongue. And since we're on a small rabbit hole of the Jordan 9s can we talk about the P.E.'s during that era even though MJ wasn't on the court during the 1994 season his shoes were still making a scene there were special P.E.'s made for NBA legends like Penny Hardaway, Latrell Sprewell, BJ Armstrong, Kendall Gill, Mitch Richmond and Harold Miner and don't even get me started with the LeBron and Kobe P.E.'s we'll talk about that later let's just keep going on with this review. So now that you guys know a brief history about the shoe let's go ahead and break down all the details of the 2024 version and show you guys all the differences between the 2010 retro as well because honestly there's a lot of differences. So starting with the bottom of the shoe you have your classic Air Jordan 9 outsole there are a lot of details to this shoe and we have to dissect each and every one because this outsole speaks volumes in so many different ways in languages too. During the creation of the Air Jordan 9 Tinker teamed up with innovation designer Mark Smith and that's where they came up with the idea of the storyline of the outsole and how they would represent Michael Jordan being a global icon through the sport of basketball. So as you can see from these original sketches there were definitely a lot of different iterations before they got to the final version that we see here today. Looking at the outsole on the right foot when it comes to the heel you can see that you have a two and a three with a university blue jump man in the center of that classic to its OG form and then going up to the front of the foot right here you have these different words and it looks like they're in different languages because they are. Now here on the right foot you have French for dedicated you have Spanish for force you have Italian for intense you have French for freedom and you have German for graceful. Now one thing that Mark Smith wanted to do when it came to the creation process of this sneaker and in quote he said we were not happy with just taking this one graphic designing it and flipping it we definitely wanted to keep it unique and what he means by that is if you look at the two outsole side by side you can see that they actually did keep that very unique not only with the 23 how they see you see it's a smaller two over here and a bigger three on the side of the left foot and then we have a larger two and a smaller three on the back end of the right foot but also if you look at the text on the toe when it comes to the left and the right foot as well you can see that both of them also have different texts and different words so when it comes to the left foot in Russian it reads sport then Swahili it says independence Russian freedom German athletic and then Swahili hope these are words that are not only impactful to Jordan and his brand but people around the world when it comes to the sport of basketball and the icon that he's become and speaking of that in 1994 which is quote unquote the year of the release of the shoe you have that 1994 here with the star in the middle of that and then in Katakana right here in both of the shoes you have sports to as well now there's one final detail left on this shoe that I'm going to leave out I'm gonna let you guys answer that in the comment section can you guys tell me what these symbols mean right here next to the Katakana please let me know down below in the comment section and help everybody else as well now going up to the middle on this sneaker you have your powder blue all throughout that section with your rubber wrapping up on the side and your black jump man facing forward it's gonna be the same thing here on the left foot as well now when we take it to the upper you have a solid set of materials not the best not the worst but I can say one thing is definitely not as good as the OG one huge complaint that I had and a lot of other people had as well when it comes to the 2010 retro the leather on these was pretty trash so one thing that I can say is these are definitely a lot nicer than the pair from the past but at the same time just don't hit like the OG you can see on these photos from the old pairs back in the day obviously the dead stock pair looks pretty smooth but the way that the shoe wrinkles and how the material looks on that top vamp area you can definitely see how nice the quality was now one thing that I do appreciate is the powder blue line on the cut around the leather this is something similar to the OG and we didn't see this on the 2010 retro and I definitely think Jordan Brown was paying attention to the details on this one oh yeah if you didn't know by now my name is DJ and this is the now going to the back end of the shoe on the heel obviously the elephant in the room whatever you want to call it there's no 23 on the back and this is what everybody had known from 2010 but if you look at the original from 1994 there was never a 23 on the back in the first place when it comes to the four OG colorways the other three did have the 23 on the back but these ones did it and honestly I'm not mad at it we have been asking over and over and over again to give us that OG shape and that OG form and they're doing a good job when it comes to something like that and that's why I appreciate this shoe even more now going up to the side of the foot right here you have your white stitching with your triangular shaped embossed print and then you have your perforations in the center of that and these come standard with a pair of all black rope laces and then when your eye stays here all throughout the upper that's going to be a black plastic piece and a more of a matte black color just behind that you're going to have an all black mesh with the black fabric stitched in the center of that now going to the tongue of the shoe you're going to have more of that nylon feel when it comes to that and then you're going to have a black patch sewn in in the center of that with the Air Jordan branding in the powder blue as well now as you guys remember when it comes to the Air Jordan sevens the Air Jordan eights and then to the Air Jordan nines they all had that booty inside of the shoe when it comes to the full fabric on the back in around the Achilles area and then that wrapping up around the tongue of the shoe as well they all had their own little form but at the end of the day you could see the progressive evolution of the models over those few years so when it comes to the back in around the Achilles in the pull tab you're going to have that pull tab connected right here and stitch all throughout then you're going to have your global icon logo here and a powder blue with the jump man in the center of that and then a black plastic behind that all stitched down another dope touch and detail that I saw on this shoe that I really love compared to the OG you have that same branding with the patch on the back end of the tongue it gives you that OG vibe sometimes we see it all the way on the inside right here and you got to look in the shoe like this and open it up to see the shoe size but this is going to be identical to the OG patch back in the day well somewhat identical so I know they didn't have QR codes back then okay now taking it to the sock liner you have an all black sock liner with a white Nike air and as you look at these photos from the original from 94 and the pair now you can see that the blues are slightly different but the overall shape configuration and small details on the shoe honestly I can say again golf clap in the comments section I think they did a good job now when it comes to this 2010 retro we have a lot to go over as you guys can see the blues are different the shape is going to be different obviously this pair is warrants I know I get that but for the most part you can see that there is going to be a lot of differences and some similarities because yes it's still the same shoe so let's start with the outsole because the first thing that I noticed was the black jump man on the 2010 retro and then the blue jump man here on the 2024 retro which is also similar to the OG another big detail like we talked about earlier is going to be what the 23 on the back in the shoe again I get it some people want to see the 23 other people like seeing this let me know what you guys think down below in the comment section so they have done the 23 on the 2024 retro or so they have never put the 23 on the back of the 2010 retro on the first place now like I said earlier the material difference on these two shoes is pretty drastic the pair in 2010 just wasn't that good and I think they did a lot better and I feel like almost kind of feels like the 85 ones in the leather on those it's kind of got that stiffer more firm kind of thicker vibe to it but again at the same time it might be a slightly different material I'm not exactly a hundred percent sure now when you look at the rope laces as well when it comes to these two shoes you can see that the rope laces were a lot skinnier and honestly they did this on all the retros when it came to the 2010 2011 era you guys remember the citrus nines the charcoal nines they did the anniversary nines they did these nines there's a bunch of nines coming out during that time over that couple year window and I vividly remember a lot of them having those skinnier laces so it's dope to see them bringing back that thicker lace given the shoe that og feel also another thing that I noticed was the jump man on the new retro is going to have a smaller black jump man here and you can see it's a lot larger on the back end the proportions and shapes of the two shoes are just going to be slightly different in different areas and honestly I feel like the 2010 retro did a better job when it comes to the size of the jump man on the back of the shoe now before we wrap this up I wanted to ask you guys a quick question about the nines do you remember the commercials that they used to have back in the day when they said that Jordan wasn't in retirement and that he had another player alter ego type guy playing on the basketball court and he had kill Roy and all the different stuff like that motorboat Jones or even the spike league commercials of them talking about him being off the basketball court and not doing that well in the baseball field but even though he was trying his best those were definitely some very good commercials and just some stuff that people don't talk about as often anymore so even though 68% of the people say this shoe is firing 32% of the people say is trash at the end of the day the majority still wins and I think people still like this sneaker but again when it comes to the retail price point getting the shoe what's coming out all the different things not as much hype behind nines I could understand why these are still sitting on shelves but one thing that I can say is you got to love and respect an og whether you do or do not like the sneaker and want it in your collection sneakers like this have a huge impact on the culture and are definitely huge impacts when it comes to the time stamps of different eras over the years when it comes to at least the sneaker and sports culture so for me already like the other shoe I had the other version I got these back I'm glad to have the retro I can't wait to put these on and rock them out in the wild or see other people rock them in as well and tell those stories so I hope this video was helpful and again there hasn't been six or seven different retro iterations like we see when it comes to like their breadfors or the white cement threes or something like that but either way this is the og and I feel like we had to talk about this sneaker so I hope you guys enjoyed this if you guys haven't already hit the subscribe button I'll see you guys in another video and I got a playlist 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