If you were anywhere near social media or any form of sneaker news within the last 48 hours, you’ve heard the news, first as a rumor and then officially. Jordan Brand has switched the release dates for the “72-10” XI’s from the 19th to the 12th and the “Chrome” VIII’s from the 26th to the 19th, sending sneakerheads all over the world into a frenzy.
This comes as a surprise to most. Jordan Brand isn’t the type of company to switch release dates up last minute, especially not with one of their most anticipated releases of the year. Why’d they do this, and what might come of it? Let’s dig a little deeper and try to find out.
The first (and most logical) explanation is that they had a last-minute realization that the release dates didn’t make a ton of sense and decided to bump them up. As Christmas falls on a Friday this year, the VIII’s were set to release the day after, and although kids with a fresh wad of Christmas cash might have enjoyed that, it’s historically not a great day for retail sales (imagine the returns). The XI being moved up a week won’t affect its sales at all..they could change it to a Monday in March and they’d still fly off the shelves.
The second could be that they don’t want to compete with the impending release of the black Yeezy Boost 750. With Ye’ heads, resellers, and sneaker collectors everywhere thirsting for anything with Kanye’s stamp on it, it’s possible Jordan Brand decided they’d rather have their big December release on a day with no other major releases so that the spotlight could shine firmly on them. If there’s any truth to this theory, it’s a major boon (and a big power play) for Adidas, as they may finally be starting to chip away at Nike’s invincible air.
The third and final explanation is that both releases were bumped up because Jordan is finally planning on dropping the all-red XI’s that have been rumored for years, either alone or in a pack. Although this is the most far-fetched of the three scenarios, it’s not totally out of the realm of possibility. Jordan Brand has been known to pull some crazy moves occasionally, and this would be one of their craziest yet. If it happens, just remember you heard it here first.
Three solid possibilities as to why the release date switched…what do you think? Is the release date switch occurring for one of the reasons above or is it something else altogether? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter! And as always, be sure to follow us on Instagram for all the fire sneaker pictures you can handle.
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