Review: Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG Black White 2.0 Reps Sneakers

Introduction

Today, we’ve got a detailed look and breakdown of the Air Jordan 1 High Rep Shoe, which I believe is simply called the Black and White colorway. This is the standard Air Jordan 1 High box, but it comes in black and white. Very simple, very clean, nothing much to talk about there. Some of you, especially if you’ve been in the sneaker space for quite some time, might find these familiar, and that’s because they are. This Rep shoe in this colorway is essentially a recycled version of the Air Jordan 1 High OG “Respect,” which was a tribute to Derek Jeter. These are a little bit different than those, mostly in one way and one way only, or two if you want to count the insole, but that’s up to you. Basically, the black portions of the Respect version had lettering or writing all over it. I don’t remember what they actually said; they could have said “Respect,” cleverly done with the “RE2PECT,” oh yeah, it was his number, #2. It was a straight-up tribute, and much like some of the past releases of the Air Jordan 1s, when light would hit that lettering, it would reflect and shine on everything. It would have been better if his number was 5, but you know, hindsight. If we go back to page one, I’m just saying, they did what they could with what they had. Okay, you know what, it would have been better. That should be the question of the day, stay tuned.

Clearing Up the Toe Box Mystery: Why All Air Jordan 1s Are the Same

Now, as far as this shoe is concerned, earlier I called them the “customizer special” because, hey, if you’re missing a pair of Air Jordan 1 Shadows in your collection, not anymore; just gotta paint the white parts gray, and you’re pretty much good to go. The quality and everything like that are pretty much on par with every other Air Jordan 1 that they have released in the past, I’d say, maybe about 1 and 1/2 years, something like that, maybe a little bit less than that, whenever they did that 2.0 version of the Air Jordan 1 High OG, which is not quite OG, but hey, we’re not here to talk about that. It’s pretty much the same thing. I know that a lot of people on every version of this shoe like to talk about the toe shapes being like, “Oh, the toe shape’s different, the toe shape’s different.” I think it’s just the color messing with your eyes because the way that they make shoes, especially like this, these patterns are patterned. You can’t not do it the same every time. There are wonkier ways to do things, like structured toe boxes, or if they maybe forgot to put it on the correct last, but I highly doubt that’s happening. So yeah, I think that the visual differences in the toe boxes that you’re seeing are just simply an optical illusion. Not to say that they’re not boxy, I’m just saying that they’re not all different, they are all the same.

Inside the Sneaker: What’s Underneath Your Feet

Now, the outsole itself is very simple, very self-explanatory. It’s some of the greatest traction of all time. If you don’t have herringbone, radio is probably even better, especially if it’s implemented in a way that allows the rubber to really move and grip the floor. That’s what something like this does. Moving on up, we have a rubber cupsole; inside that cupsole is a polyurethane wedge, and inside of that polyurethane wedge is an encapsulated air sole unit. On top of all of that, can you guess the insole? Oh, sorry, I showed you. Just fake Dream Cell, it is fake Dream Cell. So is it really this time? Yes, it is. It’s not stamped with Dream Cell, so yeah, these things are not as good as traditional polyurethane insoles like what you would find in the OG style Jordans, like the Air Jordan 3 or 4, the ones with the Nike Air branding on the back. Still more comfortable than Ortholite, so you know, if all else fails, there’s that. Not glued in though, so if you don’t like them and maybe you wanted something else, you can always take that out and swap it out for anything.

The Versatility of Material Quality in Air Jordan 1 Releases

Now, the materials are really what differs between one release to the next. Some have new buck, some have suede, some have leather. Some leathers good, this is right in the middle. So the black portions are pretty much what you would expect if you received any black-based Air Jordan 1 High OG in the past few years, pretty much that same exact stuff. I wouldn’t say that it’s bad or anything like that, it’s just not fantastic. What I love about it, though, is that it’s matte, so it’s not super glossy. That’s something that I think we all have in common when it comes to black sneakers, maybe sneakers in general, because even when it’s white leather, like, I don’t like it when it’s glossy. It looks real tacky, you know what I mean? But that’s usually the common thread whenever I read through the comment section on most of these simple black and white colorways. It’s just like, “Yo, they look amazing, but why is it so glossy?” You know what I mean? That’s how I feel too; sometimes it’s just like I don’t want to look like I’m wearing patent leather unless I’m actually wearing patent leather, you know what I mean? So yeah, it’s just one of those things. If you like that nice flat matte look, this is it. Again, if you wanted to paint these gray, telling you, you can paint these any color. This is that simple classic black and red Air Jordan 1-style color blocking; you can make up your own color mixture with these things and it’ll be amazing.

Summary

Now, as far as the white leather is concerned, that is the better quality of the two, at least in my opinion. You can actually see how thin the coating is, like that polyurethane top layer on top of the leather, so it allows you to see the texture of the leather just a little bit underneath it without having to really do anything. Then, the more that you touch it and that you move it, you can really see that it is a nice thin coat, and again, it looks great. Anyways, everything that you like on the Air Jordan 1 is still here: nylon tongue, simple Nike Air logo on the tongue tab, enlarged Wing logo as well as the slightly enlarged swoosh. Obviously, this is not quite like the 1985 or original; that’s more in line with what they offer with the ’85 versions of the shoe. You know Jordan Brand’s gotta make all that money, throw in that net. Sorry, that was a poll, but you know, going fishing, anyways, trying to catch everything, all the money. And as far as sizing is concerned, I’d recommend going true to size; whatever you typically wear in your Air Jordan 1s, that’s what I would go with. The comment section is a little iffy as far as the overall fit of Air Jordan 1s is concerned, or as far as any shoe is concerned, but especially these.

Some people go up half a size, some people go down half a size; I personally just go true to size. It’s usually the safest option, so that’s what I would recommend. But feel free to sound off below and let everybody know what you think down below in the comment section now. If you want to buy these rep shoes you can visit our personal store where we are providing our best services and all branded Reps Shoes available at Retsneakers.com.