Think the 38 will go over retail two years from now like the 28,32,34 did?
hmmm...interesting question.
Short answer: only time will tell. My guess is yes because of the lack of success of the 37 so far, but we don't know yet what the 39 will have to offer. I think you have to look at what comes before and after.
Long answer: here's my analysis of the situation: it's a bit complicated at times, so I'll try my best to illustrate it because there has been many crossovers in the last 10 years or so each time people have been really turned off by a model, the general public reaction in the years that followed has been somewhat mitigated before things took off.
Following the 2009(24) which were a general failure , the 2010(25) were more or less of a success because of their looks...even though people later discovered they were very good on court, then then 2011(26)and 2012(27) looked cheap, were a bust and you could find them for next to nothing for 5-6 years after. Following the poor public response, JB went all in with performance and the tech, but they produced low numbers of the xx8 because they had to build back up their customer base as far as the latest model was concerned and earn players trust and respect again...indeed the XX8 were slow to take off at first except for the initial colorway before they became almost nowhere to be found for a few years, even the 29 were slept on at first until word got around that the XX8 and XX9 the were absolute beasts on court and then everybody wanted them.
Then the XXX paid the price in part because of that and were slept on by many there were plenty of XX9 floating around for a good while and even the xxx1 were still impacted by that at first for almost 2 years...then word got around again gradually, so the xxx1's success started to show at about half cycle and picked up well after, .into the XXX2
XXX2 and XXX3 benefited from the XXX9 and XXX1's rep in a way but initial sales were hampered at the same time for different reasons, one of them being that many xxx9 and xxx1 were still easily available at ridiculous prices because of the domino effect that had started with the 2009(24), 2010(25), 2011(26) and 2012(27) which affected sales of the XX8 negatively even though the XX8 were later found to be very worthy...so at first the xxx4 ''payed the price'' a bit because of the XXX2 and XXX3 which had flaws in some respects , but word got around very quickly this time and with reason. that the XXX4 were spot on again. The rest is history!
XXXV benefitted namely from the XXX4 rep at first but were so so for many people and sales were then impacted negatively because some people had issues with the arch,looks and etc, so people rushed on the remaining XXX4.
After all the ups and ''downs'' and all the complicated domino effect, by the XXX4 the Jordan signature line had created enough momentum since the XX8 and the XXXVI were so much of a huge success that the XXXVII suffered because of that AND the fact that they were not very well acclaimed, arguably, meant bad news for the XXXVII and they were considered a big failure. Personally I don't think the shoes per se are as bad as some people make' em out to be...on court they do the job just fine. As for the rest yeah they remind me of the 2011 and 2012 era J's in many respects.
I think the 38 will suffer a bit at first because of the 37 awful public reception and the fact that there will be still enough 36 around at first, but I believe the XXX8 are well on the footsteps of the 34 and 36 as far as future success is concerned.
