About

Air Jordan 4

The wings on the side of the Air Jordan 4 are almost always mentioned and almost never explained. They are not an emblem and not a decorative piece: they are standalone plastic brackets that the laces run through, and they are there because the panel underneath cannot take the tension.

You can’t tighten a net

On the side is a real open net, not a printed pattern but a grid you can see through. Tinker Hatfield added that in 1989 to save weight and let heat escape. The problem with that is you can’t pull on a net without deforming it. The solution is those wings: they are anchored to the sole and the side and bridge the net, so the lace tension runs around them instead of through. The same grid pattern is cut out in the brackets themselves.

The same question, nine years later

It’s a problem that came up more often as shoes got lighter. On the Air Max Plus from 1998 it was solved in exactly the same way, only the parts there are called ribs instead of wings: there, too, a plastic frame carries the lace tension over a fabric that couldn’t hold it on its own.

The rest of the construction

In the heel is an oval window with the air chamber behind it, smaller than later Air Max models but clearly visible. Around it sits a layered midsole with cutouts, a lot more complex than the flat sole of the Air Jordan 1 from four years earlier. At the back is a molded plastic heel piece that wraps the heel, and on the tongue is the Jumpman with the airplane label.

Note the size code

This model appears in a wide size range, and the versions for children are not always obvious from the title. A style code that begins with 408452 is a child size; 308497 is the adult version. Elsewhere in the line are the Air Jordan 3 and the Air Jordan 5, which each continue the net and the wings in their own way.

On this page you can see which versions of the Air Jordan 4 are hottest now according to the Hypescore, from which price they can be found and at how many shops they are in stock.