Black Friday weekend usually belongs to discounts. This year it belongs to a shoe.
The Air Jordan 4 'Bred' lands on 28 November 2026, the day after Black Friday, and it will be the seventh outing for a colourway that first appeared in 1989. What makes this one worth paying attention to is not the colours, which have not changed in almost forty years, but the mould underneath them.
What Makes the 2026 Pair Different
The upper returns to nubuck. That sounds like a small detail until you remember that the 2024 Bred Reimagined was built in leather, which changed how the shoe aged, creased and caught the light. Nubuck is what the 1989 pair used, and it is what most people picture when they think of this shoe.
It matters beyond nostalgia. Nubuck softens and creases across the toe in a way leather does not, so a well worn pair looks lived in rather than beaten up. It is also less forgiving. Wet weather and nubuck have never been friends, which is part of why the leather version existed in the first place.
Nike Air branding sits on the heel, the insole and the outsole. Fire Red appears on the Jumpman, inside the tongue and as a hint through the sole, against Black, Cement Grey and Summit White across the rest of the shoe. The midsole carries white edges, the same detail the original had, and the pair is expected to come in the Jordan face box.
The bigger change is the shape. The 2026 pair is expected to use the OG mould rather than the fuller shape that has carried most retros since the 2000s. That is the difference between a pair that looks like a modern Jordan 4 and one that looks like the shoe from 1989, and for a lot of collectors it is the only thing that matters.
Seven Releases Since 1989
The 'Bred' 4 arrived in 1989 as one of the four original colourways, and Michael Jordan wore it at that year's NBA All-Star Game, where he put up 28 points, 8 rebounds, 4 steals and 4 blocks.
The first retro came in 1999, and most of those pairs are unwearable now because the midsoles have crumbled. It returned in 2008 as part of the Countdown Pack alongside the Air Jordan 19, then again in 2012 with a Jumpman on the heel and a shape that drifted well away from the original.
The Air Jordan 4 Retro 'Bred' (2019) brought Nike Air branding back and sold out quickly, though it kept the modern mould. The Air Jordan 4 OG 'Reimagined Bred' went further, with an updated shape and a leather upper, and split opinion more than any Bred release before it.
Both are on KLEKT, and putting them side by side is the quickest way to understand what the 2026 pair is trying to correct. One got the branding right and the shape wrong, the other changed the material. This one is meant to fix both at once.
