Mystery Solved? Air Jordan XI Low "I.E." Name

[ssmf88]

The 1996 Air Jordan Low.

In my opinion, one of the most underrated Jordans ever. Back in 1996, I owned the Black/Red color way, and it was the most comfortable Nike basketball shoe I had worn up to that point.

The naming conventions of this shoe ad to the mystery. Some call them the Air Jordan XI Low I.E., but this I.E. was only on the White /Light Gray box.

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Adding even further to the confusion, some people misread the I.E. to be "L.E." and called them the limited editions.

In fact, these weren't even officially called the "Air Jordan XI Low" but just "Air Jordan Low".

Anyway, still to this day you see major sneaker news sites and collectors refer to these as the "Air Jordan XI Low I.E."

I have seen some heads correct people and say only the White/Grey were the I.E., but I think I might have finally cracked this mystery naming convention.



It wasn't in fact the name of the shoe at all but a typo on the adult Air Jordan box labels. The shoes name was just "Air Jordan Low" and the colorway was "I.E. White / Light Grey-Cobalt".

This was found by checking out the label for the original kids size version of the shoe. It is called the "Sky Jordan Low (BP)" and the colors are listed as I.E. White / Light Grey-Cobalt.

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Somehow in the editing of the label information for the adult white / grey, the I.E. got kicked up on the first line with the title of the shoe. This is why it doesn't exist on the Black/Red colorway labels at all.

No idea what "I.E. White" means as far as colors are concerned, but maybe someone can find some other Nike shoe with that color. It might actually refer to the texture of the material because it is textured and not smooth. I can't remember if the Black / Red version have a similar texture or not.

Maybe this has already been found out before, but I have never heard the true story myself and figured I would share my theory with anyone interested!

 

[sthebest]

this actually makes sense

 

[fresh out dabox]

interesting read

 

[jacksodk]

Never understood why they were called aj 11 low. The number 11 was never on the box. I figured because they came out right after the og black/red 11's and was a totally different show and was out of normal release cycle for jordan's then, it was called the 11 low. I just figured the e in i.e. was for elephant print, but could never figure out the i. Lol

 

[ssmf88]

I think most people referred to them as the "AJ XI Low", because they basically were. They came out between the AJ XI and the AJ XII, they had the same midsole, air unit, and sole as the AJ XI and Jordan wore them during the playoffs, switching off between the standard XI high.

I was just stating in the original post that they were not officially named XI on the box. Just a technicality I wanted to state since I was going into the mystery of the name.

If you fast-forward to the XIV lows for example, they use a very similar model. It shares a lot with the regular XIV, but the uppers are actually quite different, so I don't see it a huge stretch to refer to this as the AJ XI Low.



Anyway, I found some article where a sneaker site asked some Nike employee what the I.E. stands for on twitter. The guy claims it stands for "International Exclusive", but I think that is BS. The rep said he had a hard time finding anyone who knew what it meant, and that even Tinker Hatfield didn't have an answer, so it really feels like after asking a lot of fellow employees he found someone to give him an unsure answer and they went with that. Either that or they just made it up to have an official response.

If you look at the box pics I posted in the original post, you can see it makes much more sense that the I.E. is part of the color way and not the title of the shoe. It would be too much of a coincidence that the type was made on the Sky Jordan version.

WTF does International Exclusive even mean? It wasn't an international only release so it doesn't even make sense. Not to mention the Black / Red was released internationally too.

I guess the color could be "International Exclusive White" but it seems weird that Tinker Hatfield wouldn't remember the color choice on an early AJ release.

 

[dankenstien88]

Great detective work OP.

Never understood why they were called aj 11 low. The number 11 was never on the box. I figured because they came out right after the og black/red 11's and was a totally different show and was out of normal release cycle for jordan's then, it was called the 11 low. I just figured the e in i.e. was for elephant print, but could never figure out the i. Lol

Shoes are most definitely XIs.


All Jordan at the time were not numerically numbered on the box. The 1995 Jordan XI mids had no number either, the label just read "Air-Jordan". The XV was the first pair of jays I remember having the model number actually printed on the box, before that it was just "Air Jordan"

Take a look at the design of the XVI lows, XVII lows, XVIII lows etc.... All these shoes were labeled with their corresponding model number, yet they had very different uppers than their Hightop counterparts. IMO its really cool how much effort went into the design of most Jordan lows and the fact they were more than a simple cut and sew chop top like so many other low-top shoes.

 

[jacksodk]

You are correct I believe with numbers, I was trying to say I didn't know why they were called 11 lows since they didn't look anything like an 11. I knew they were 11 lows because 1) that's what they were marketed as and 2) the soles were like the 11's. I think this was just Jordan way of changing things up like how the lebron soldiers and NSW series as well as Durant's NSW. That same year (or after) I believe was when we got the jumpman pro's. I think it was just Jordan's way of pushing limits and being innovative

 

[dankenstien88]

You are correct I believe with numbers, I was trying to say I didn't know why they were called 11 lows since they didn't look anything like an 11. I knew they were 11 lows because 1) that's what they were marketed as and 2) the soles were like the 11's. I think this was just Jordan way of changing things up like how the lebron soldiers and NSW series as well as Durant's NSW. That same year (or after) I believe was when we got the jumpman pro's. I think it was just Jordan's way of pushing limits and being innovative

Kinda...

These were still officially tagged "Air-Jordan" on the box, a designation reserved only for flagship models. Also changing uppers for lowtops wasnt unheard of for Nike... see the Flight 89 high vs low. The shoe most people know today as Flight 89s were originally the 89 low... the 89 high had a totally different upper.


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[jacksodk]

Correct. No I.e. on none of the boxes. All this talk did make me remember that I never retrobrighted my of black/red 11 lows. Its a nice day outside so off to whipping up a batch to start.
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[dankenstien88]

Correct me if memory fails, but didnt the original black/red lows come with a gum tinted sole brand new ?

 

[trueprada]

Niice

 

[jacksodk]

Dank, no they didn't come gum soled. They were clear. They smoked them on the retro version which was why I passed.

 

[Magic33]

I have the white OG's and they're still not yellow

Had the white release from 2001, up until a couple of years ago....weren't yellow

Why can't JB do this with all of their soles?

I prefer the smoked sole on the black ones...have the 2001 and last retro in 2011. They last until the sole separates

Box doesn't say IE from what I recall, but I'll make sure

 

[mjmoney23]

Since we are discussing differences from mid to low....why did jb change the model so much on the xvi,xviii, xix, and xx low?

 

[dankenstien88]

Dank, no they didn't come gum soled. They were clear. They smoked them on the retro version which was why I passed.

Yeah they were, I knew I wasnt trippin.


Pics from 1996


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[skip2mylou23]

Interesting. I don't know if I buy it, though. I would need to see that color on another shoe to believe it.

 

[ssmf88]

The white / grey retros of these are fine, but they didn't include the I.E. anywhere on the label.

They ruined the black and red retro imo, the shadow elephant looks terrible compared to the OG, not to mention the smoked soles (not sure if the OG had slightly tinted soles, but the retros are darker brand new than any pics of discolored OGs)

 

[ssmf88]

Interesting. I don't know if I buy it, though. I would need to see that color on another shoe to believe it.

so you think the typo is on the kid's box then? and why does the black and red not have it in the shoe name if it isn't the color?

 

[jacksodk]

Dank. They were not gum colored. That picture does look a bit off, but trust me, they were not gum colored. When i think of gum colored, i think of orangish yellow rubber soles. These were not that. More clearish. Magic, I said the same thing when I took these out of the box today. Over a decade and no piss yellow. Whatever jb did to these to not yellow, they should do it with others.

 

[ssmf88]

Great detective work OP.
Shoes are most definitely XIs.

The XV was the first pair of jays I remember having the model number actually printed on the box, before that it was just "Air Jordan"

Good point, I forgot about that but not entirely true. The OG Air Jordan VIII was titled "Air Jordan 8" on the label. (note 8 not roman numerals VIII)

Not sure about the adult sizes but my boxed OG Baby Jordan VII are titled "Baby Jordan VII"

The Air Jordan XII had "Air Jordan XII" on the label

Those are just a couple of examples, not sure if they ever did it before the Air Jordan 7 (cant think of any examples), and they certainly didn't do it continuously on every model.

This is actually most confusing on the AJ V, VI, VII and then IX X XI because they share the same style boxes. You sometimes will find shoes on eBay that have say an OG VII White / Red color way matched up with the same size OG IX box in white color way. The owner themselves might not even notice the mistake.

 

[dankenstien88]

^ Good looks

 

[mannchyld]

For OG Air Jordan's, the Roman numerals were used for the kid pairs. Adults simply just said Air Jordan on the box tag.

 

[ssmf88]

For OG Air Jordan's, the Roman numerals were used for the kid pairs. Adults simply just said Air Jordan on the box tag.

That's definitely not a universal rule.

examples I know for certain from my own collection:

-Baby Jordan IV are just called "Baby Jordan" on the label
-Sky Jordan V are just called "Sky Jordan"
-Sky Jordan VI are just called "Sky Jordan"
-Soft Bottomed Crib Jordan V & VI are just called "1st Jordan" no numerals
-Air Jordan VII kids were just titled "Air Jordan (GS)" or "Sky Jordan" depending on size
-Sky Jordan VIII are just called "Sky Jordan (BPS)"
-Air Jordan IX kids were just labeled "Sky Jordan (BP)" or "Air Jordan (BG)" depending on size


In fact the only examples I can really think of off the top of my head is a pair of Air Jordan VII Baby shoes that are titled Baby Jordan VII while the adult models are just labeled "Air Jordan" and the big kid's AJ V was called "Air Jordan V (GS)"

there are probably more but it's definitely a year by year thing

 

[airjordan jb23]

interesting read

 

[vegetaray123]

Fellas...You have to keep in mind that in the old day's the box tags really didn't follow a set pattern for each and every release...I'd go as far as to say they were almost an afterthought...That being said you'll find that OG labeling was all over the place, even on same model shoes...

Also regarding the gum soles...Yeah they had a darker almost gum sole...100% not clear as in Jordan XI's but nowhere near the level of darkening that both rounds of retro's sported...