Air Jordan 39 Review: What is Wrong With Jordan Brand?

What’s going on with Nike?

As you would expect, there was a ton of expectations and hoopla surrounding the release of the Air Jordan 39. MJ himself was supposedly more involved with the design of this model than with any previous modern Jordan flagship. The shoe’s design pays homage to the Jordan 9 and the Jordan 29 and is designed with Jordan’s cross-step in mind. The Jordan 39 features luxurious materials and cushioning setup … sounds like the best-performance Jordan model to date, right?

Well, someone at Jordan forgot that support in a basketball shoe is a thing.

The Air Jordan 39 features no shank plate, no torsional support, and subpar containment. Similar to the Nike GT Hustle 3, the build of this shoe has us scratching our heads and wondering what is happening over at Nike. It feels like they forgot how to make basketball shoes.

All this being said, the Air Jordan 39 does have some redeeming qualities so let’s jump in and see what it has to offer.

UPDATE: The Jordan 39 made it onto our list of the most comfortable basketball shoes of the year.

Air Jordan 39 Review

Air Jordan 39 Tech Specs:

Air Jordan 39 Traction

The traction of the Air Jordan 39 is designed with a modified herringbone pattern, featuring multiple layers of herringbone for enhanced grip. The outsole is made of translucent rubber, which has shown excellent performance in recent years, particularly on indoor courts. On paper, this sounds great, but performance was subpar on indoor surfaces.

As long as you can keep the sole of the shoe clean, performance is solid, however, this shoe attracts dust like no one’s business. Having to wipe a basketball shoe from time to time is no big deal, but when you can’t go 3 plays without wiping, it becomes an issue.

As far as outdoor use goes, the rubber compound does feel tougher than most, and the traction pattern also seems like it will hold up well on the blacktop. That being said, using a $200 shoe for outdoor basketball seems a bit nuts, but, to each his own.

Air Jordan 39 Cushion

Cushioning is easily the best aspect of the Air Jordan 39. This model combines ZoomX and Zoom Air technologies, promising an exceptionally fluid and comfortable ride. It does not feature, as many thought, a drop-in midsole. Instead, what we get is a Zoom X midsole with a full-length, bottom-loaded Zoom Air unit. All this cushion is housed within a soft rubber cupsole. a design choice that has not been seen in recent Air Jordans.

This cupsole construction, reminiscent of older models like the Air Jordan 1 and Air Jordan 15, aims to offer a unique blend of stability and comfort.

This setup is very well balanced and offers a great blend of compression, comfort, impact protection, stability, and reactiveness. It’s a more plush setup, so if you enjoy a softer cushioning setup, you will enjoy the ride provided by the Air Jordan 39. If you insist on using these outdoors, this will be a decent setup to use on harder surfaces.

Air Jordan 39 Materials

This is, more or less, another standout aspect of the Air Jordan 39. Supposedly, Michel Jordan insisted that this shoe had to feature excellent premium materials, and that’s what we got. The Jordan 39 is equipped with a mix of premium leather and a tightly woven mesh that resembles Cordura. Additionally, the shoe features TPU overlays in key areas (to try) to enhance structural integrity and support.

Now, as good as the quality of the materials is, and as nice as they feel in hand, their on-court performance isn’t great. The upper of the shoe is not properly reinforced to keep your foot contained on harder stops and cuts on court. If we had some form of lateral containment, the performance might have been saved, but no such luck.

Air Jordan 39 Support

As we have mentioned already. support is the glaring issue of the Air Jordan 39. There really is nothing in this shoe that offers any significant amount of containment or support on court. There are no lace cables, no torsional plate, no spring plate, nothing. There’s a heel counter that is on the flimsy side, and that’s it. There’s a slight chance that if you are a very light basketball player you will find the support to be adequate, but everyone else will likely have issues.

The lack of support is all the more surprising considering that the Jordan 38, which was one of the best basketball shoes of last year, had excellent support features.

If you were so inclined, you could equip your Jordan 39 with an insole that provides extra torsional support to fix this issue, but having to spend extra money to get the proper performance out of a brand-new pair of $200 basketball shoes is not the best customer experience.

Air Jordan 39 Fit

The Jordan 39 fits true to size so go with whatever size you usually wear with Jordan. There’s a little bit of extra space over the toe box upon first try on, but, the shoe should conform better to your foot once it’s broken in. That area of the shoe is where you will find most the premium leather on the AJ 39, and leather takes a bit more time to properly break in.

Air Jordan 39 Overall

Not to sound repetitive, but, what is going on over at Nike? The Air Jordan 39 could have easily been the best basketball shoe of 2024-25 with a few simple and inexpensive changes. Instead, we have a shoe that does offer some standout features, but also has some glaring, foundational issues that may render the shoe unplayable for the general public.

I say general public, because, you may see the Air Jordan 39 on the feet of your favorite NBA player and say: Well, if “so-and-so” is playing in them, they can’t be that bad. The catch is, NBA players rarely play in the same shoes as you and I.

In many cases, the model an NBA player plays in has been modified to fit the performance needs of said player. We recently saw Devin Booker playing in a modified version of the Book 1. At the very least, NBA players typically use very expensive personalized orthotics to fit their on-court needs.

So, no, just because you see NBA players playing in AJ 39 with no issues, doesn’t mean you will also.

If you are willing to spend a little extra money on top of the $200 the shoe already costs and purchase a pair of insoles that come equipped with torsional support, that may be able to save the shoe. But, as it stands. the Air Jordan 39 is a very weak offering.