One went back to 1989 and the other went to the golf course

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Jordan Brand’s two most famous black colorways are heading in opposite directions this winter: one went back into the archive to get its 1989 shape back, and the other grew spikes and went looking for a fairway. Opposite directions, same colors.

The Black Cement 3 carries the heavier history of the pair. Tinker Hatfield put elephant print and a visible Air window on it in 1988, and the design is the one credited with keeping Jordan at Nike when he was ready to walk. The Bred 4 arrived a year later, closed that spring on The Shot, and neither colorway has really left the rotation since.

They land seven weeks apart: the Bred 4 opens Black Friday, on November 27, and the Black Cement 3 follows on January 16.

One is a restoration project. The other, a relocation, spikes and all.

The Bred 4 is a restoration, not a reinterpretation

The Air Jordan 4 Retro OG “Bred” releases Friday, November 27 at 10 a.m. ET through SNKRS, Nike.com and select Jordan Brand retailers, in full family sizing: $230 for adults, $165 for big kids, $105 for little kids and $90 for toddlers. It is Jordan Brand’s Black Friday headliner, the slot the AJ4 has owned before.

The shape, fit and feel have been remastered to the original specs, and the toe box tells the story first: it slants and tapers again, where recent retros sat bulbous and upright. White edges trace the nubuck paneling. Visible Air sits in the heel. Nike Air branding is back on the heel tab, the insole and the outsole, where a Jumpman has stood on the recent retros.

Air Jordan 4 Retro OG “Bred”
Black, Cement Grey and Fire Red colorway · Cement Grey wings and netting · Full family sizing · Style code IX8180-001
Price: $230.00
Where to buy: More details at Nike

Nubuck is the dividing line with 2024, when the Bred Reimagined rebuilt the colorway in smooth all-leather as a dress-shoe take on a basketball icon. Matte nubuck is back. So are the Fire Red Jumpman tongue label and the orange Nike Air hangtag hanging off the collar.

The midsole split is period-correct, too: Cement Grey carries the forefoot, Summit White wraps the heel around the Air window, and Fire Red takes the outsole.

Nothing on the shoe reaches for a new idea. That restraint is the entire pitch.

This is the sixth time the colorway has been sold, starting with the 1989 original that closed that spring on The Shot, Jordan’s series winner over Craig Ehlo in Cleveland. Retros followed in 1999, in the 2008 Countdown Pack, in 2012 and in 2019, each one drifting a little further from the first mold.

The packaging plays along: pairs ship in the Jordan face box, his face across the black lid.

Jordan Brand has run this same restoration play on the other shoe in this piece. The Black Cement 3’s 2024 retro was recut closer to the 1988 original, its elephant print sitting lower and slimmer than the chunky retros before it, and the golf version inherits that corrected shape and adds spikes.

The Black Cement 3 leaves the court for the fairway

The Air Jordan 3 Golf “Black Cement” releases January 16, 2027 through Nike and select Jordan Golf retailers, in men’s sizes. Jordan Brand has not announced a price yet, so the box below runs TBD until one lands.

Above the midsole, almost nothing changes. The 1988 shoe carries over in black tumbled leather, with elephant print wrapping the toe and the heel the way it did on the original.

Varsity Red fills the lower eyelets and the tongue Jumpman, and Cement Grey sits on the tongue and the perforated collar.

One change hides in the heel. A visible Air window sits in the back of the midsole, something the earlier AJ3 golf shoe never got. The stance drops a touch lower than the retro cut, too, shrinking the gap between a basketball shoe and a golf shoe to the sole alone.

Air Jordan 3 Golf “Black Cement”
Black, Cement Grey and Varsity Red colorway · Elephant print toe and heel wraps · Men’s sizing · Style code IU3188-001
Price: TBD
Where to buy: More details at Nike

Underneath, the conversion is total. The court outsole is gone, replaced by white soft spikes ringed in red traction.

The last time the 3 went golfing it ran spikeless, closer to a lifestyle shoe with a golf label. This one commits to the grass.

Jordan’s own golf habit is the obvious logic behind it. He has played obsessively for decades, owns a course in Florida, and Jordan Brand’s golf line has spent years turning his old signatures, the 1, the 5, the 12, into spiked course shoes. The Black Cement was the biggest name still missing from that lineup.

Two different bets, then, on what an icon is for.

The Bred 4 argues the original shape was already right in 1989 and just needed rebuilding faithfully, while the golf 3 argues the silhouette outranks the sport it was drawn for.

Black Friday settles the first argument in about ten minutes. The second one gets a full season on grass.

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