About

Air Jordan 5

The teeth on the side of the Air Jordan 5 come from a fighter plane. In 1990 Tinker Hatfield looked at the shark mouths painted on the noses of WWII Mustang fighters, and placed that same grim pattern on the forefoot of the midsole. On every version the points face backward, as if the shoe is biting forward.

One thing first: there is also a Low

Under this term, alongside the regular high version there are also Low versions. They lack the high padded collar and the large tongue that define the model, and therefore fit noticeably differently. Anyone after the classic silhouette should first check that “Low” isn’t in the title; the rest of this text is about the high version.

The sole is a window

Turn a 5 over and you can see through it: the outsole is made of translucent rubber, on all three versions examined for this text. That was new to the line in 1990 and it has remained a distinguishing feature, with one practical caveat noted in the FAQ. Above it sits a window with the air unit in the heel, like the 3 and 4 also have.

Mesh, a lace lock and a number

The side panel includes an insert of plastic mesh with oval openings, shiny and set just slightly deeper than the surrounding leather. On the upper the laces end in a transparent lock that secures the tension all at once, a solution the Air Jordan 6 repeated in a different form a year later. The heel is stitched with the jersey number 23, and the tongue is unusually wide and heavily padded, with many versions featuring a silvery, lightly reflective surface.

Between the neighbors

In the line that began with the 3, the 5 is the first to deliberately seek drama: more aggressive than the understated 3, more playful than the technical 4. Anyone going through the series sees here the moment when the shoes started to tell stories rather than merely solve problems.

On this page you can see which versions of the Air Jordan 5 are hottest right now according to the Hypescore, the starting prices and how many shops have them in stock.