Release Date + How To Buy: 2019 Air Jordan Retro 5 “Michigan”
Let's take a good look at the highly anticipated 2019 Air Jordan 5 "Michigan" SP and why it will sell out with strong resale value on the massive sneaker aftermarket.
After a slew of profitable releases in May and June, July is showing no signs of slowing down (9-shoe-release-date-stockx-goat/">check out our full list of this month’s profitable drops here).
The Air Jordan Retro 5, another Tinker Hatfield masterpiece, has seen some pretty great releases historically, and 2019 appears to keep that trend going.
Tinker designed the Jordan 5 for Jordan’s 1989-1990 season with inspiration from MJ’s “biting style” – hence the shark tooth shapes on the midsole, which Hatfield created with WWII era fighter planes in mind.
Before diving into some tips on how to buy them, let’s take a good look at the 2019 Air Jordan 5 “Michigan” SP and why it will sell out with strong resale value on the massive sneaker aftermarket.
Why Michigan?
Depending on your age, you may or may not be familiar with Michigan’s “Fab Five” of Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson, but they completely changed the face of NCAA basketball in the early 90’s.
They were the first all freshmen starting five to make to the NCAA finals, where they ultimately fell to the Christian Laettner era Duke Blue Devils. They made it to NCAA finals again the following year, only to fall to the other side of Tobacco road, the UNC Tar Heels, as Chris Webber infamously tried to call a timeout in the final seconds of the game when Michigan had none remaining.
Despite not winning that elusive title of NCAA champion, the Fab Five are still remembered as one of the best college basketball teams ever assembled.
Sporting never before seen long shorts, black socks, and black shoes, the Fab Five brought “street ball” to the NCAA. Many consider the Fab Five to be the beginning of the integration of basketball and hip hop culture. They were the trash talking, alley-oop throwing, swag forefathers to Allen Iversons we associate with basketball + hip hop today.
As the 90’s progressed, quickly nobody was interested in wearing short shorts like John Stockton, but everybody wanted to look like the Fab Five.
Air Jordan Retro 5: Fab Five PE
Back in 2017, Nike unveiled a friends and family exclusive of the Jordan 5 called the “Fab Five.” With the Michigan “M” on the tongue, and a “five times” hand sign to represent the 5 freshmen – basketball fans and sneakerheads went crazy over this model based on one of the most iconic college basketball teams of all time.
Currently, to get your hands on one of these will cost you anywhere from $8,000 to over $10,000 depending on size, across platforms like StockX, GOAT, FlightClub, etc.
No need to fret about missed opportunity– if you’re a diehard fan or just looking for a solid flip, Nike just announced plans to release a very similar model this weekend.
The 2019 Air Jordan Retro 5: Michigan SP
Retail Price: $225
Release Date: Saturday, July 6th, 2019
Originally slated for August, Nike just announced this week plans to pull this release forward.
You can see the similarity between this model and the Fab Five PEs, which has really upped the hype.
This Amarillo/College Navy colorway has yellow nubuck uppers with Navy accents, and a blue translucent sole.
Instead of the Michigan logo, these feature a Jumpman on the tongue, inverted colors on the paint speckled spikes (yellow with black instead of vice versa), and a cool Jordan apparel patch on the back, similar to those seen on basketball uniforms in place of the Fab Five hand symbol.
Forecasting Resale
So you might be thinking, “hold up didn’t those Jordan 14 Ferrari’s in yellow flop in resale?”, and you would be right.
But there’s a good case to be made that these will do much better for two reasons – Jordan 5’s perform better than 14’s in resale, and releases that mirror F&F models, have been doing pretty well.
Take a look at the Jordan 5 Trophy Room Ice that released a few months ago. Similarly, based on a F&F model that was selling between $4-$7k, the Trophy Room Ice inverted the colors of the F&F model and retailed at $200.
And you can see for yourself that, regardless of size, the resale has been exceptional.
Still not convinced? Take a look at the Jordan 5 Retro T23 Tokyo:
Look familiar? Many of the IG hypebeasts have been saying that this upcoming Michigan release is very reminiscent of the Tokyos that released in 2011 to commemorate the opening of Jordan Tokyo 23 in Japan. This Japan-only exclusive release is currently going for around $3-4k depending on the platform/size.
The 2016 Retro 5 Michigan “PE”
To pull up yet another example to back the resale forecast, it seems every time the Jordan brand drops Michigan shoes, they go for big bucks.
The navy Michigan colored 5’s of 2016 pictured above are going in the thousands across all platforms, from $2,000-$6,000+ depending on size.
2019 will be the first release of this particular “Michigan” model so there’s not a lot of existing data to pull from, but according to @hanzuying, the “Michigan” Air Jordan 5 is expected to be limited to about 64,000 pairs worldwide.
While you can never truly predict resale value, combine the sneakerhead hype, mirroring a Friends & Family Player Exclusive, the limited numbers, AND all the basketball history surrounding the Fab Five, and you have a pretty sweet combination for resale potential.
There have been a handful of sales on StockX since news of the release date shift, which are promising at almost double the original retail price, though keep in mind this is a small sample size pre-release.
Whether you’re looking to flip these for a quick profit or play them in the long game, if you want to stay on the safe side, smaller sizes might be the move.
How To Buy: Air Jordan Retro 5 Michigan
This drop got pulled forward very short notice, so the full retail list is unclear right now, but look for these to drop on SNKRs, Nike.com, DTLR, FootAction, and other select Jordan retailers.
If you miss out on these limited J’s, without a doubt you will see them on StockX, GOAT, and StadiumGoods among others.
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