# Is the Air Jordan the Greatest Sneaker of All Time? 15 Lists
> From the 1985 'banned' Air Jordan 1 to a $2.2 million pair of game-worn 13s: Air Jordan on 15 lists, from basketball shoes to the most overrated sneaker.
*By YPB Team · Published October 7, 2026 · https://youpick.best/articles/air-jordan-ranked-many-ways*
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A game-worn 1985 Air Jordan 1, signed by Michael Jordan, in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture: one shoe, 15 rankings. Photo: Smithsonian Institution, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Air Jordan 1 "Royal", one of the black, blue and white colourways from the 1985 launch, returns in its original leather on October 10, 2026, at $185 a pair.1 Forty-one years after Peter Moore drew it, the first Air Jordan is still a new release.
The line now reaches far past the court. Air Jordans sit on lists about fashion, film, logos, auctions, streetwear and sneaker riots, and the subject of each list changes what the shoe is competing with. This article follows it through 15 of them.
> The Air Jordan wins the lists about culture and struggles on the lists about basketball: a shoe built for one player's game outgrew the court it was made for.
## Air Jordan 1 vs Converse Chuck Taylor: the greatest sneaker of all time
The 18 greatest sneakers of all time has the broadest field here, and it is the ranking behind this article's title. Court shoes, skate shoes and runners compete on it: the Adidas Superstar and Stan Smith, the Vans Old Skool, the Nike Cortez, the Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 and the New Balance 990.
The Air Jordan 1 has the origin story. Peter Moore designed it for Michael Jordan's rookie contract, and Nike says the league threatened a $5,000 fine for every game the black and red version was worn.2 Nike turned the threat into an advertisement, and the shoe became the first sneaker people bought for the story.
The Converse Chuck Taylor All Star has the longer record. Converse introduced it in 1917, it was the standard basketball shoe for half a century, and punk bands, skaters and schoolchildren wore it long after players stopped.
A 1985 rookie shoe against a 1917 canvas classic. Play it →
## Air Force 1 vs Air Jordan 1: Nike's greatest sneakers
The 16 greatest Nike sneakers narrows the field to one company, so the Air Jordan 1 meets its own family.
The Air Force 1 came first. Bruce Kilgore's 1982 shoe was the first basketball shoe with Nike Air, and the all-white low became a permanent street uniform in New York, then everywhere.
The Air Jordan 1 sits on the list with three of its own successors, the 3, the 4 and the 11. No other line from one athlete takes four places on Nike's list.
Two Nike high-tops from the 1980s, one built for a team and one for a player. Play it →
## Air Jordan 1 vs Air Jordan 11: the best Air Jordan ever made
This ranking turns the Air Jordan into the whole question: 15 models, from the 1985 original to the Air Jordan XX3 of 2008. Collectors argue about it more than about any other shoe on this page.
The Air Jordan 1 holds the founding claim. Everything after it, including the idea of a numbered signature line, started with Moore's high-top.
Tinker Hatfield holds most of the rest. His first Jordan was the Air Jordan 3 in 1988, with the elephant print and the Jumpman logo.3 His Air Jordan 11 of 1995 brought patent leather to a basketball shoe and reached cinemas in Space Jam.4
The middle of the run has its own advocates. The 6 was on Jordan's feet for his first title, the 12 for the "Flu Game", the 14 for his last shot as a Bull.
Peter Moore's 1985 original against Tinker Hatfield's patent leather 11. Play it →
## Kobe 4 vs Air Jordan 11: the best basketball shoes
The 13 best basketball shoes of all time asks what a shoe did on the court, and that changes the field. The Reebok Question, the Foamposite One, the Air More Uptempo, the Penny 1 and the Fab Five's Air Flight Huarache are here because players won in them.
The Air Jordan 11 has a strong playing record. Jordan wore it through the Bulls' 72-10 season of 1995-96, and the carbon fibre plate and full-length Air were performance features, not decoration.
The Nike Zoom Kobe 4 changed how the game is played in shoes. Kobe Bryant pushed for a low-cut basketball shoe in 2009, when the industry believed high-tops prevented ankle injuries, and most of the league followed him down.
The low-top that changed the court against the shoe of the 72-win season. Play it →
## Air Jordan vs Nike LeBron: the best signature sneaker line
The best signature basketball sneaker line compares careers of shoes. The Air Jordan shares it with Nike Kobe, Nike KD, Under Armour Curry, Adidas Harden, Reebok Question, Puma Clyde and Li-Ning's Way of Wade.
The Air Jordan line has the scale: four decades of numbered models, retros and an entire brand built on one player.
The Nike LeBron line has the playing time. LeBron James has worn his own shoes in NBA games since 2003, the year Jordan retired for the last time, so for more than twenty years the Air Jordan line has been sold on memory rather than on its namesake's games.
Forty years of retros against twenty-plus years of game minutes. Play it →
## Under Armour vs Jordan Brand: the best basketball brands
The best basketball clothing and shoe brands ranks companies, and Jordan Brand competes with its own parent, Nike Basketball, as well as Adidas, Under Armour, Puma Hoops, New Balance, ANTA and Li-Ning.
Jordan Brand is the largest of the challengers by far. Nike's annual report counts its revenue at $7.27 billion for the 2025 fiscal year.5
The same report shows the weakness: the figure was $8.70 billion a year earlier, a 16% drop. Under Armour, whose basketball line is built on Stephen Curry's shoes, and the Chinese brands are the names this ranking puts against a giant that is shrinking.
Stephen Curry's brand against Michael Jordan's. Play it →
## Jumpman vs the NBA logo: the most iconic logo in sports
The most iconic logo in sports puts the Air Jordan's silhouette among team crests and sportswear marks: the Yankees' interlocking NY, the Bulls' red bull, the Dallas Cowboys star, Ferrari's prancing horse, the Olympic rings and Real Madrid's crown.
The Jumpman is a logo of a single moment. According to Nike, it was born when Jordan won his third Slam Dunk Contest in 1988 wearing the Air Jordan 3.3
The NBA logo is also a player in mid-move, the silhouette widely linked to Jerry West. The Nike Swoosh is on the list too: Carolyn Davidson drew it in 1971 and invoiced Nike $35.6
Two basketball silhouettes in mid-air, one for a player and one for a league. Play it →
## Nike Mag vs Air Jordan 1: sneakers in movie history
The most iconic sneakers in movie history ranks shoes by their screen time. Forrest Gump's Nike Cortez, Uma Thurman's yellow Onitsuka Tigers in Kill Bill, Ripley's Reebok Alien Stompers and Spicoli's checkerboard Vans are all here.
Two Air Jordans have a part. Michael Jordan wore the Air Jordan 11 in Space Jam, and the Air Jordan 4 gets scuffed in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. The Air Jordan 1 is the newest entry, on Miles Morales's feet in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018).
The Nike Mag has the most famous scene. Marty McFly's self-lacing shoe from Back to the Future Part II imagined 2015 in 1989, and Nike released a self-lacing version in 2016.
Back to the Future's self-lacing shoe against Miles Morales's Air Jordan 1. Play it →
## Air vs Challengers: the best sports movies of the 2020s
Here the Air Jordan is the subject of a film. Air (2023), directed by Ben Affleck, tells how Nike signed Michael Jordan in 1984, with Matt Damon as the basketball scout Sonny Vaccaro and Viola Davis as Deloris Jordan.
The other films on the 15 best sports movies of the 2020s are about athletes: Challengers and its tennis love triangle, The Iron Claw's wrestling family, King Richard, F1.
No game, race or bout decides Air. Its climax is a contract.
A film about a shoe deal against a film about a tennis final. Play it →
## Ray-Ban Wayfarer vs Air Jordan 1: the 1980s fashion trend
The most iconic 1980s fashion trend files the Air Jordan 1 with shoulder pads, leg warmers, acid-wash jeans, Members Only jackets, scrunchies, Swatch watches, jelly shoes and the mullet.
The Air Jordan 1 belongs here because it left the court within a year. Kids who never played organised basketball wore it to school, and that is the moment a basketball shoe became clothing.
The Ray-Ban Wayfarer shows how the decade's trends started. Tom Cruise wore a pair in Risky Business in 1983 and sales of a frame from the 1950s took off. Most entries here came from film, music videos or the street; the Air Jordan 1 came from a sports contract.
Risky Business sunglasses against a rookie's basketball shoe. Play it →
## Jordan Brand vs Supreme: the best streetwear brands
The 14 best streetwear brands of all time is a list of labels that came from skate shops, surf shops and Tokyo boutiques. Stüssy started in Laguna Beach in 1980, A Bathing Ape in Tokyo in 1993, Supreme in New York in 1994, and Kith, Palace, Fear of God and Aimé Leon Dore followed.
Jordan Brand is the only basketball line among them. It earned the place because streetwear is built on sneakers, and for most of these labels a collaboration with Jordan or Nike is a career peak.
Supreme has the opposite route. It sold skateboards and T-shirts on Lafayette Street, and its red box logo now carries the same resale premium as a limited Air Jordan.
A basketball label against a Lafayette Street skate shop. Play it →
## Run-DMC x Adidas vs Off-White x Air Jordan 1: the best sneaker collaboration
The best sneaker collaboration of all time is crowded with Air Jordans. Off-White, Travis Scott and Union have all reworked the Air Jordan 1, and A Ma Maniére the Air Jordan 3; Sacai, Supreme, Concepts, Staple and Ronnie Fieg fill the rest.
Virgil Abloh's Off-White version, part of The Ten in 2017, kept Moore's shoe and exposed how it was made: visible stitching, a zip tie, the word "AIR" printed on the midsole.
Run-DMC and Adidas did it first. The group recorded "My Adidas" in 1986 and became the first musicians with an athletic shoe deal. Every rapper's sneaker since, Jordan collaborations included, follows that contract.
The 1986 rap deal against Virgil Abloh's 2017 rework. Play it →
## Air Jordan 13 vs Babe Ruth's jersey: the most iconic sports memorabilia
The most iconic piece of sports memorabilia ever sold puts one pair of sneakers among jerseys, cards and balls. The T206 Honus Wagner card, the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, Maradona's "Hand of God" shirt and James Naismith's typed rules of basketball are all on it.
The Air Jordans are the "Bred" 13s that Jordan wore in the second half of Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals, when he scored 37 against Utah. Sotheby's sold them in April 2023 for $2.2 million, a record for game-worn sneakers. Jordan's Game 1 jersey from the same series had already sold for $10.1 million.7
Babe Ruth's jersey carries a bigger story and a bigger price. He wore it in the 1932 World Series, the game of the "called shot", and Heritage Auctions sold it for $24.12 million in 2024, a record price for any sports collectible.8
Measured by price alone, the sneakers are a small item on this list. Their claim is that the most valuable shoe ever sold at auction was worn by the same player whose name is on it.
A pair of 1998 Finals sneakers against a 1932 World Series jersey. Play it →
## Pigeon Dunk vs Air Jordan 11 Concord: the most hyped sneaker release
The most hyped sneaker release of all time scores shoes by the trouble their launches caused, which makes it the harshest ranking here. Its other entries include Off-White's The Ten, the Galaxy Foamposite, the Air Max 95 "Neon" and the Travis Scott Air Jordan 1.
The Air Jordan 11 Concord retro of December 2011 caused trouble in several states at once. UPI reported police called to malls in Indiana, Florida, Texas, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina for a $180 shoe.9
Jeff Staple's "Pigeon" Dunk of 2005 started the genre on a smaller scale: a crowd outside one shop on the Lower East Side, and police called to hold it back.
One New York shop in 2005 against malls in six states in 2011. Play it →
## Air Jordan 1 Retro vs Balenciaga Triple S: the most overrated sneaker
The most overrated sneaker of all time turns every entry into an accusation. The accused include the Air Force 1, the Dunk Low, the Samba, the New Balance 550 and the Balenciaga Triple S.
The Air Jordan 1 Retro is on the list because of how often it comes back. The original 1985 colourways now return every few years, alongside hundreds of new ones, and a shoe sold as a rare classic is easy to find in most sizes.
The Balenciaga Triple S makes a different case: a luxury house selling a chunky trainer for close to a thousand dollars. The Air Jordan 1 Retro at least costs what a sneaker costs.
A retro sold every year against a luxury chunky trainer. Play it →
## Fifteen lists, one rookie contract
The Air Jordan's strongest lists are about fashion, film, collecting and logos. On the lists about basketball shoes, its rivals are the Kobe 4 and LeBron's line, shoes still worn in games today. The Royal returning this month is a 1985 design sold as fashion, which is the whole pattern in one release.
Each of these orders comes from single matchups, settled by [a shoe-against-shoe vote](/articles/what-is-pairwise-comparison).
If your favourite pair belongs on a list we have not built, build it and put the Air Jordan 1 against it.
## More rankings, more angles
- [Nike vs Adidas Rivalry: The Swoosh, the Three Stripes, 16 Lists](/articles/nike-vs-adidas-ranked) — the parent company's own rivalry, from running shoes to football boots
- [LeBron James vs Michael Jordan: Who Is the GOAT? 16 Lists](/articles/lebron-james-vs-michael-jordan-ranked) — the man on the logo against his longest-running challenger
- [Kobe Bryant: Greatest Laker of All Time? 81 Points, 14 Lists](/articles/kobe-bryant-ranked-many-ways) — the player who sold the league on low-tops
Sources
Sole Retriever — Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG "Royal" release date (October 10, 2026) and $185 retail price: soleretriever.com (checked 2026-10-07)
Nike — Air Jordan 1 history: 1985 release, designer Peter Moore, the threatened $5,000 fine per game: nike.com (checked 2026-10-07)
Nike — Air Jordan 3 history: 1988 release, Tinker Hatfield's first Jordan design, elephant print, the Jumpman born at Jordan's third Slam Dunk Contest: nike.com (checked 2026-10-07)
Nike — Air Jordan 11 history: 1995 release, Tinker Hatfield, patent leather, Space Jam: nike.com (checked 2026-10-07)
NIKE, Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 — Jordan Brand revenues of $7,270 million (fiscal 2025) and $8,701 million (fiscal 2024), down 16%: sec.gov (checked 2026-10-07)
Nike — Swoosh history: Carolyn Davidson's 1971 design and her $35 invoice: about.nike.com (checked 2026-10-07)
CBS News Philadelphia — Michael Jordan's 1998 Finals Game 2 Air Jordan 13s sold by Sotheby's for $2.2 million on April 11, 2023; Game 1 jersey sold for $10.1 million: cbsnews.com (checked 2026-10-07)
NPR — Babe Ruth's "called shot" jersey sold for $24.12 million, a record for a sports collectible: npr.org (checked 2026-10-07)
UPI — Air Jordan 11 Concord release, December 2011: police called in Indiana, Florida, Texas, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina; $180 retail price: upi.com (checked 2026-10-07)
