Welcome to SELEKT, our new series where we present the most exciting upcoming or trending sneakers. We’ll be giving you our own takes on the shoes, plus our predictions on how hype they’ll be on release. For our first issue, we’ll be going over the recently teased Air Jordan 1 ‘Royal Reimagined’.
The Reimagined design scheme is something that we’re starting to see being applied to more and more OG Jordan designs. I’m sure we don’t need to remind you about the ‘Lost and Founds’, but there’s also the Jordan 3 ‘White Cement’ set to drop in March. The philosophy behind these releases revolves around reimagining these shoes as vintage pairs from the 80s that have been rediscovered.
The Reimagined look has taken on varying degrees. The ‘White Cement’ 3s simply feature vintage yellowing on the midsole and heel, while the Lost and Found 1s feature distressed leather throughout the upper. From what we can tell from the teasers, the ‘Royal Reimagined’ appears to have the most unique look yet. The upper obviously comes in the famous black and royal blue colourway. But this time, it looks like it’s made with a luxe suede instead of the typical smooth leather.
Teased alongside the ‘Royals’ was a Reimagined pair of the OG ‘Black Toe’ colourway. The black, white, and red colour combo comes in a similar distressed leather to the Reimagined Chicagos. Keep in mind that these are teasers/mockups, so we can’t be sure how they’ll look closer to their release. But still, we’ve gotta ask, what do we think of these?
The Reimagined style isn’t without its critics of course. Some might say that if they’ve gotta wait years between OG colourway rereleases, they’d rather just get them as is. Whether it’s just yellowing or distressing, they see the artificial ageing as an unnecessary gimmick or just a new trend.
Others would say that the complete ‘Lost and Found‘ package, from shoe to box, was one of the strongest pieces of storytelling we’ve seen from Jordan Brand in a while. The idea that the ‘Royals’ are mixing up the look with a suede upper, makes us wonder how they’ll present the rest of the Reimagined concept.
There’s not much to say other than these are as close as you can get to a guaranteed hit. The Jordan 1, still by no means a slouch, has recently been eclipsed by other models like the Jordan 4 and the Nike Dunk. However, if there’s any exception to this it’s gotta be an OG colourway. We saw how popular the classics still are last November, with the ‘Lost and Found’s’ killer performance.
So far, only the ‘Royal Reimagined’ has a confirmed release window of holiday 2023. Originally it was rumoured that this spot was meant for the ‘Black Toe’, with the ‘Royal’ not dropping til 2024. Now the ‘Black Toe’ has no confirmed release, with the ‘Royal’ coming as a breath of fresh air after the recent string of white and red colourways.
Holiday 2023 is a way off, in the meantime check out the ‘Lost and Found’, as well as the new Air Jordan 1 High 85 Black White on KLEKT. Don’t forget to follow KLEKTIVE to catch the next issue of SELEKT.
