There's recently been a lot of talk about releasing fewer Air Jordans, but which unreleased pairs should actually come out?

Of all the headlines to emerge from Nike, Inc.’s first-quarter 2027 earnings call, one of the biggest pieces of news was that the sportswear company would scale back availability of its Jordan Brand line. Nike president and chief executive officer Elliott Hill stated the brand had been “oversupplying its iconic retro product” and that it would reduce the volume and frequency of certain Air Jordan models.

A quality-over-quantity approach could very well benefit the brand, but there’s another strategy to consider: tapping into Jordan Brand’s vast cache of unreleased styles. The label has, in recent years, unearthed sought-after pairs from the “vault” by reissuing once-mythical sneakers such as the Undefeated x Air Jordan 4 and the Tokyo Air Jordan 5. But what about those shoes that were never released in the first place?

One such style, an unreleased “Khaki” Air Jordan 3 which first surfaced in 2011, is reportedly set to arrive at retail in 2027. This got us thinking: What other elusive sneakers should the brand release?

FN took a look back through Jordan Brand’s sprawling archive of unreleased Air Jordans to highlight some of the top styles that Nike should consider bringing to retail.

In 2025, Nike Inc. created one of its most meticulously detailed Air Jordan reissues ever with the Air Jordan 1 Retro High ’85 OG Bred. Every inch of the sneaker was considered, from the barely visible rubber texture and profile of the shoe to the cut and color shade of leather, in order to closely match the model’s original 1985 form.

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