 This sneaker was so far over budget, Jordan Brand decided to cancel the entire project. In today's video, I'm gonna be giving you guys an in-depth exclusive look at the Ben 23 Air Jordan 12. And if you didn't know by now, my name is DJ, and this is the DNA show. But as most of my older sneaker heads remember, the Ben 23 Air Jordan collection came out around 2010 and we first saw the Air Jordan 2. There were just over a thousand pairs of this shoe made and Jordan Brand had even announced that they were gonna put extra time and detail into each and every one of the shoes from one through 23 in the entire collection. They wanted to give a more sophisticated and elevated vibe when it comes to retro sneakers and that's one of the main reasons why we saw the Ben 23 collection come to life back then. And I know you guys have seen recent collaborations with Nike and Jordan Brand with the Louis Vuitton Air Force ones or the Dior Air Jordan ones that have given us a super premium vibe now in current time. But when I think back to premium releases, the Ben 23 collection in my mind was one of those first set of releases that really took the game to a whole another level when it comes to creating an elevated premium product. And during this time in 2010 and just after that a few years later, we saw multiple releases ranging from the twos, the fives, the sevens, the nines and the thirteens. And the next shoe that Jordan Brand was planning on releasing, this Air Jordan 12. But unfortunately it cost way too much to produce the sneaker because of all the different details that they had on the shoe. And because of that issue, we never saw a Ben 23 release ever again. I know there's a lot of sneaker heads out there still to this day hoping and praying and wishing that they still continue that collection. I don't know if they will, but for now let's go ahead and take some detailed looks and a full in depth review of the shoe. All right, so there's definitely a lot of cool details about this shoe that I can't wait to show you guys. So let's go ahead and get started with the outsole. Looking at the bottom of the shoe, you got your classic Air Jordan 12 outsole. You got your red jump man on the top end on the toe. You got your 23 branding right here. You got your hair and bone traction on the front and the back end around the heel. But if you look at the hair and bone area, you can actually see it's kind of got like that heather gray kind of mixed textured look to it all throughout that area on the front and the back end. And then on the outsole, it's more of a sail color compared to a pure white. And then you got your carbon fiber shank right in the center of the foot, classic to the Air Jordan 12. Now going to the midsole up here, same thing, all sail colored on the back end and on the front end. And they keep that same vibe all throughout the top of the shoe as well when it comes to the color pattern. Looks like a simple shoe, I get it. But trust me when I tell you, when we get to the upper, oh the upper. There are some cool details to this shoe. So starting with the mud guard area around the front end of the foot, you got a nice tumbled leather, very, very premium. When I tell you, this shoe was expensive to make because these materials are very, very nice on every single part of this shoe. Now going to the middle of the foot right here, you got your jump man branding with the plastic hit, classic to the Jordan 12, like we always see. And then you got the woven leather. All of this is woven in a single piece throughout the entire upper of the shoe. Crazy, crazy detail. Typically you see like the lines with the stitching like that on the upper or something. Now we've seen this in the past with other ones like I've shown you guys and we saw different versions. I've seen fives, I've seen fours, I've seen threes, I've seen a let, I've seen, we can't talk about those yet. But either way, there are some crazy versions out there. And to see the craftsmanship of this and as you look at the leather, you can see where it's tumbled in different areas and how it's all intertwined throughout the entire upper. Man, this would have been such a dope release to see happen. We saw stuff, you know, like the lab series where they kind of got a little bit of interesting with that on the materials on the upper. But most of the samples that I've seen have these type of uppers and they stay samples. They never release. And because it cost so much to produce this shoe more than all the other bend shoes that actually came out to the public, this woven leather is the reason why they couldn't release the shoe. And if you downgrade from this, it's kind of hard to come out with a drop. So I could understand that as well. Now, going around that, you can see there's a piping of leather with a stitch on both sides of it, going around in a smooth leather all throughout this where the laces are on this section. And then you got your flat premium laces right here in the sail color. And then you have a leather patch at the top right here with a Ben 23 stamp, all red right there. Classic like we typically see with the Ben 23. And just when you thought those were some dope details, there's a couple more. And if you put them side by side with this sample right here, you can see that this is one leather piece and this is actually three leather pieces. So not only is it giving you that classic Jordan branding with the quality inspired by the greatest player ever, but they actually added a couple extra patches on here. And if you see these two side by side, you can see this is all one piece and that's kind of embossed on there, which I'm not sure if we made a video about these yet. Let me know if you guys want to see these down below in the comment section. Here's a quick look at those. For those that are interested, but this is not what the video is about today. Either way, just showing you, they added more elements, more premium materials, great looks on this shoe. And that's just another dope thing that took this shoe to a whole another level. Now undoing the laces right here, if you actually look on the tips, you can see that it's a white lace tip and then you have a gold jump man on both of the edges right there. And then if you look on the back of the tongue, if you see right here on the patch zero of 1000. So this could have been a thousand pairs. This was a sample version obviously, something that could have came out, but never did. Now this is another dope touch that, oh my gosh, I remember when I first saw this, I was like, this is nice. All leather on the insole, you got the cross stitch all throughout that. You got the Ben 23 with the red stamp on the heel. And when I tell you one of the nicest insole that I have ever seen, these are definitely up there with some of the greatest. Now I had to save the best part for last cause actually on the insole of the right foot, there's another hit on here. And this is the part that actually had me going. This is clean right here. You got the Ben 23 with the gold on there in the heel. So you got the red stamp on one foot, the gold on the other, the touches, the materials, everything. The sock liner feels like a felt. So when it comes to overall presentation and craftsmanship of this shoe, everything is amazing. And I love these. I couldn't wait to show you guys. It's been so long. They've just been sitting in the archive. And it's so dope to finally give you guys some clean, crispy shots of this sneaker. If you guys wanna see other samples and PEs and rare gyms, some of the most wild shoes in the world, make sure you guys subscribe to this channel. Hit the like button. And I have a full playlist curated with a bunch of different samples and PEs just like this. So I hope you guys enjoyed this video and I'll see you at another one. I will never let you down. Yo, before you go, I just launched my sneaker head academy where we got everything on the inside. I teach you all the stuff that I learned over the past 15 years. When it comes to sneakers, scaling, real estate, you name it, we talk about all of it in there. And there's a eight week program plus a bunch of monthly giveaways. I give away shoes literally way too much, honestly. But either way, I'll see you guys on the inside. Hit the link down below in my description or pinned in the comment section for DJ sneaker head academy. And I'll see you guys over there.