Air Jordan XXXIX review

Don't let the Air Jordan XXXIX fly away from you if you're looking for:

• The bounciest of bouncy hoopers (Air Unit + ZoomX combo).
• An incredibly comfortable shoe that will shield your feet from impact.
• A new partner for your static shooting drills.

After comparing our personal experiences during our wear tests, we've agreed this AJ feels really unstable on foot. Its midsole is super explosive, but the shoe itself doesn't include any kind of stopping mechanism (like stability features) so going for powerful layups or quick cuts felt too dangerous. This ended up making our ankles and feet muscles work so much, that they ended up really tired once we were done playing. As an alternative, we believe you could try the incredibly supportive Jordan Luka 2, or the Nike G.T. Jump 2, which also has an incredibly powerful energy return.

If these pairs are too pricey for you, you can always play with our filters and select cheaper hoopers! Here you have the cheapest ones we've analyzed to far.

When we measured the heel stack of this Jordan, our caliper returned 27.1 mm.

Before we go on, let's get one thing straight: the fact that this shoe has a lower heel stack compared to the average of its category does NOT mean the cushioning is worse! In fact, it's completely the opposite: the Air Jordan XXXIX felt unbelievably comfortable and soft underfoot.

We'll talk about the foam used by the brand later on, but trust us when we say our feet felt they were daydreaming with the amount of comfort and plush this pair offered.

The forefoot stack goes down the same road.

Our caliper marked 19.9 mm, which is also lower than average. Nevertheless, once again, we didn't feel this AJ lacked comfort or energy. We felt its incredible bounce and shock absorption in every toe-off and landing!

Both these measures leave us with a drop of 7.2 mm, which is pretty much average.

As you can see in the picture, there's not much difference between the toes and the heel.

It's easier to see it in the previous picture, so please look again: from top to bottom, the sole of the AJ XXXIX has its insole (the one with the camouflage pattern), then its foam (the wonderful and extremely bouncy ZoomX that we've seen in some Nike running shoes), and a full-bed Air Unit!

Now that we have pointed out the different parts, we can start to tell you what's wrong with this setting.

After the comfort and plush we felt playing basketball we weren't even a little bit surprised when our durometer marked 16.5 HA after pressing it against this shoe's midsole.

Now even our lab data backs up how incredibly nice this shoe felt underfoot during our wear tests. You see, it just combines Nike's ZoomX premium foam with a full Air Unit, so it basically feels like flying and then landing on clouds.

Nevertheless, as we specify on our ultimate guide about foams, the major drawback of the ZoomX is its durability. Consequently, what you feel the first days you're playing in this shoe compared to some time later on (just depending on how much you play per day) will be totally different.

The same equation works if you change the unknowns. Take a heavier player, for example, and change it for the extra time played. That added weight on the midsole will definitely make the ZoomX wear out sooner if we compare it with its use by a lighter player.

Alright, with all this being said, we gotta admit this setup looks and feels wonderful comfort-wise. Nevertheless, if we focus on the stability provided... Nike, why on Earth didn't you add a shank!? It was just as simple as adding a couple of stability features, and you would have one of the craziest hoopers of the year. So... what happened in there?

Well, in our opinion, the fact that the AJ XXXIX doesn't have a shank jeopardized its playability from top to bottom. During our wear tests, when we went for aggressive cuts or quick lateral moves, our feet didn't seem to find the right balance. Let us say it straight: to us, this shoe felt unstable.

With such an incredibly comfortable midsole, who needs an extra padded insole? That's what we believe crossed Nike's mind. Nevertheless, the brand still went for a quite thick piece!

Our caliper returned 4.4 mm, which is pretty much average. Even though a thinner insole would have reduced the overall weight of this AJ slightly, we really can't complain.

This shoe's hugging upper was welcomed by our standard-sized feet.

It fits true to size, but we don't believe people with wide feet will find it comfortable upper-wise! Its materials are not stretchy at all, and at 97.8 mm, it's toebox is narrower than average even at its widest part.

Even though this AJ doesn't taper as much as the average, we don't think this solves the problem for big-toed hoopers.

Our caliper returned 77.4 mm, which is not bad at all. And as we were saying, it was spacious enough for our standard-width feet not to feel cramped. But that's literally it!

In terms of lateral stability... there's pretty much none on the Air Jordan XXXIX.

As we mentioned a couple of sections before, this shoe feels really unstable. During our wear tests, we had to be extra careful when we stopped suddenly, so back-door cuts literally felt like a threat. One way to put it is that we felt as if there was nothing there to stop our feet from overextending every move.

After thinking about it and comparing experiences, we believe that's why our feet were so tired after playing. Ankles and all! You know, the soft and bouncy midsole of this AJ is like a limitless power source, and there was nothing to stop its energy from being dangerous but our own feet. So our muscles and joints had to make an extra effort that, in other pairs with stability features, might not be as necessary.

The rubber walls made us give this shoe a 4/5 on our torsional rigidity test.

Nevertheless, it's not hard rubber. It does make it hard for our fingers to twist it, but the experience on foot is different. That's why we believe it's really important to test every single pair in and outside our lab!

There are other hoopers that feature tough materials or specific details in order to improve lateral stability (like the Jordan Luka 2, for example). These pairs usually get a 5/5 on this same test, but the thing is that our hands and our feet feel the same: protection! In the case of the AJ XXXIX, even though our fingers struggled to bend it, our feet felt they could collapse at any moment.

We couldn't rely on the heel counter for support either.

Its padded structure bent easily when we pushed it during our manual test, and the shoe doesn't feature an internal or external plastic (or any other stiff material) piece to add stability.

After everything we've said about the lack of stability and balance, you might be thinking: "Ah well, maybe Nike went for a wide landing base to try to compensate for the lack of supportive elements". Well, we're sorry to tell you this, but... you couldn't be more wrong.

At 110.9 mm, this shoe's midsole width in the forefoot is narrower than average. So, bad news!

But it gets even worse at the heel, where our caliper returned only 85.7 mm.

Even though this is only 5% less wide than average, trust us, it means a lot. The narrow design of the midsole at the rearfoot has a negative effect on the overall stability of the shoe.

We're not saying this AJ's problem could be fixed just by having a wider platform, but it would definitely help.

As expected from the lack of rigid materials, it wasn't hard for our force gauge to push this shoe all the way up to 90 degrees.

Only 30.9N were needed to flex this AJ, which is a whole 20% less than average. This makes it even more comfortable (if that's even possible) but it also demonstrates its lack of support in general.

Following our experience playing basketball in this newest AJ during our wear tests, we can't say it's the most nimble shoe out there, but it doesn't feel heavy either.

As our scale stated when we went back to our lab, a weight of 13.9 oz/394.0g is just average. That's why this shoe felt neither like ballast nor like a couple of feathers when we ran up and down the court.

The thing is... those times when we had to run because of some crazy fast break, we didn't really feel stable in the shoe. Listen, it even got to the point where stopping in the blink of an eye and changing directions felt rather unsafe for us.

After playing basketball for a while with this shoe during our wear tests, we could feel our feet begging for air. The more we played, the hotter things got, and our toes ended up almost swimming because of how much we were sweating!

To check this in the lab, we started with our light test. We put a cut part of our upper right in front of our light, but none of it could actually get through its material. Like, at all.

So we decided to try using our smoke machine. We pumped smoke into the non-cut shoe to see how much of it would stay inside, and if it left the shoe, at what speed and from where.

When we saw this, we had to recheck if our machine was on. What do you mean there's literally NO smoke coming through the upper!? Not even a shy little column, nothing! We couldn't believe our eyes, but with this clear as crystal demonstration, we didn't even need to compare the results of this Air Jordan to the Curry 10's, which scored a perfect 5/5 on this test.

Our microscope close-up might be showing us holes. But, as usual, many of them have layers underneath that don't let the air go in and out easily. Additionally, this leather material is not made to let feet breathe happily.

After this underwhelming performance, we have given the Air Jordan XXXIX a 1/5 on our breathability test. And trust us, if we could give it a 0 or a -1, we really would!

We're not gonna lie here, we did expect a great result in durability in exchange for that poor ventilation we just witnessed. So, we grabbed our Dremel and got the party started!

Rolling around at a speed of 5K RPM and with 3.2N of force, we saw white material flying around pretty soon into the test. Nevertheless, all this time analyzing shoes has taught us not to despair until we see the final results.

Alright, so this is what the shoe looks like after the Dremel's attack. As you can see, the tool couldn't just get through this shoe's thick leather layer completely. Still, the damage shouldn't be taken lightly, as it's not a mere scratch!

In conclusion, we have decided it deserves a solid 4/5 on our toebox durability test.

Just by looking at it, we can say the heel is pretty padded. But don't let this trick you! Sometimes, extra padding doesn't mean more durability.

We turned on our Dremel again at 5K RPM and with 3.2N of force to attack this shoe for 4 seconds non-stop. Despite the amount of padding, we felt the damage was significant. Just not so much to actually raise concerns, at least in our opinion, but taking into account the constant rubbing basketball shoes have to endure in the heel... we expected a slightly better performance.

This is the final result. It looks pretty messy honestly, so we have decided to give it a 3/5 on our heel padding durability test.

Our durometer returned 79.0 HC when we pressed it against the outsole.

We believe this result indicates this AJ will offer a fantastic mix of durability and grip. But hey, we have specific tests to verify that, so stay tuned!

We gave our Dremel one last time to shine when we checked this shoe's outsole durability.

This time at 10K RPM, the tool drilled the rubber for what must've been the longest 22 seconds of this Air Jordan's life. Once the test was over, we grabbed our tread gauge to check how deep the dent was.

It might be a little bit hard to see, but the measuring tool returned 0.9 mm, which is a pretty good score. Even though this shoe might not be the best to play streetball, its outsole can definitely handle a couple of games easily!

After checking the durability of the rubber used in the outsole, we were not surprised to see our caliper marking 3.0 mm when we measured the thickness of said part.

Consequently, even though this figure is lower than average, we weren't worried about its lifespan at all!

Let's have a look at the Air Jordan XXXIX's outsole!

Its soft herringbone pattern offered us good traction, but we also noted it picks up dust quite easily. As long as you keep wiping the outsole (which is something we always do when we're playing, just one of our quirks), you should be more than happy with this pair's grip.

The only problem is that we didn't feel safe enough to go for explosive cuts or changes of direction. Even though the grip levels were enough to do it, the overall structure didn't give us the confidence we needed. Just look at how much the whole shoe wrinkles when we try a quick lateral move:

We've said it before, but let us warn you once again: there was NOTHING stopping our feet from collapsing over the edge of the shoe.

We can understand where the 200 dollars this pair costs come from: its premium ZoomX foam. Its energy return and bounce are just absolutely otherworldly, and it's the type of foam that we see in top elite running shoes like the Alphafly 3 or the Vaporfly 3. And trust us, those are hella expensive as well!

This AJ doesn't have any reflective elements, but we don't think it needs them anyway. Personally, we wouldn't recommend this pair to play outdoors, and indoor courts should always have great visibility!

We loved the design of this averagely padded tongue.

Its 9.0 mm of padding are spread throughout the structure focusing on the parts where the laces might hurt the instep the most, like the top.

A semi-gusseted tongue made our feet feel even more warmly hugged by this Air Jordan.

Following what feels like a Jordan tradition at this point (yes, Luka 1, you're the exception to the rule), the AJ XXXIX doesn't feature a heel tab in the back.

A removable insole! Yes!

We loved that the brand decided to include a tag with the name of this shoe! But there's something that we like even more, and that's the fact that you can swap the standard insole of the AJ XXXIX and go for one that offers some more support!

This won't solve all the stability issues, but it'll definitely give you a hand.