Air Jordan 31 "OG"

The Air Jordan 31 arrived in 2016 as the latest chapter in a lineage that had grown increasingly self-referential, and the OG colorway leaned into that tendency more directly than most. The color blocking pulls heavily from the original Air Jordan 1, working black and red against a white base in a way that reads as deliberate homage rather than coincidence. It was Jordan Brand signaling continuity at a moment when the line was pushing into a new silhouette.

The 31 itself represented a significant technical step, incorporating a full-length Flight Speed plate and Zoom Air cushioning aimed at on-court performance, while the upper construction balanced modern materials with design cues that acknowledged the archive. The OG colorway reinforced that duality. Wearing those AJ1 colors on a contemporary performance silhouette made the reference impossible to miss, tying the newest model back to where the Jordan line began more than three decades earlier.

The lateral side carries a wings-inspired graphic woven into the material, and the translucent outsole treatment was a recurring detail across multiple 31 colorways that year. The shoe released as part of the broader 2016 NBA season rollout, with the line getting attention both from players wearing it on the court and from collectors drawn to releases like this one for the retro color connection.

The OG colorway is not a retro in the strict sense, since it is applying familiar colors to a brand new model rather than reissuing something from the past. That distinction matters when situating it in the catalog. It is a new shoe dressed in old clothes, and the conversation between those two things is what makes the colorway worth noting.