Why Air Jordan 5 “Pre-Grape” Is More Monumental Than You Might Think

With today’s Air Jordan 5 Retro Pre-Grape behind us, let’s take a closer look at the nearly forgotten pivotal shoe responsible for it.

Since 1999, when the first Air Jordan 4 retros released and helped kick off an era of throwback sneakers never before seen, there has been original colorway after original colorway brought back, and brought back again, with still more waiting off-stage for their turn.

But until now, what we hadn’t seen is an unreleased original colorway like Pre-Grape put onto shelves to purchase. Sure, kicks with roots in development stages like Air Jordan 13 “Grey Toe” and Air Jordan 7 Bin 23 have been released years later but they weren’t expressly intended as original colorways like Pre-Grape was.

As Nike tells it, legendary Air Jordan designer Tinker Hatfield has confirmed that this navy blue and turquoise colorway was to be one of the four original Air Jordan Vs released in 1990. Instead, as we now know, that call was changed. White/Grape Ice-New Emerald, known today plainly as the Grapes, got the sign-off and the rest is history.

But now that we have this fifth original colorway, salient questions can come forward. Like, where has this colorway been the last 25 years? Does Air Jordan XI and many other beloved Jordan signatures have colorway siblings we don’t know about? And the big one: Would this navy and turquoise shoe have been obsessed over the way Grapes have all these years had it gotten the green light instead?

Maybe these will be answered, maybe they won’t. Regardless, the idea of “lost originals” has the potential to change the way we look at the Air Jordan line, how we calibrate each model’s historical significance. And if Jordan Brand has more of these hidden in the archives like Pre-Grape was and plans to put them into production, those releases instantly become far more important than simply cool colorways or wardrobe accessories.

Take a closer look at the original navy and turquoise Nike Air Jordan V here and let us know where you’re at on the subject.