Undefeated’s Original Air Jordan 4 Collab Turned into Eminem’s AJ 4 Encore

One of the biggest stories in sneakers this year is the return of the Undefeated x Air Jordan 4 Retro. The pair is the genesis of our current collab culture and marked the very first time Jordan Brand partnered with an outside brand for a retro Air Jordan. However, the story could have been entirely different. The grail-status MA-1 flight jacket-inspired sneaker may not be in the annals of sneaker lore (at least as we know it today) if it wasn’t for intervention from Eminem.

Let's bring in some context. Eminem may be one of the biggest names in all of entertainment, even after dropping a string of albums met with mixed reviews. But in 2005, he was white hot (no pun intended). The controversial rapper was on the road with a star-studded cast of 50 Cent, his band D12, and Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz for the Anger Management Tour in support of his fifth studio album, Encore. The album was a commercial success, selling 1,582,000 copies in its first 10 days of tracking.

During the nationwide tour, Eminem ended up stopping by Nike’s headquarters in Oregon, spotting a blue Air Jordan 4 sample that caught his eye. The pair in question? The original version of Undefeated’s Air Jordan 4.

The story goes that Mark Parker and Tinker Hatfield entered the Undefeated store on La Brea one evening with Lance Armstrong. Around half an hour into their chat, the conversation shifted into what the shop would do if they could design any sneaker with Nike. Eddie Cruz, one of the co-founders of Undefeated, told Tinker that he would do a Jordan 4 based on his BlackBerry 7230. About a month later, a sample of the Undefeated x Air Jordan 4 in a BlackBerry-inspired color scheme would make its way to the shop.

This is where things get kind of murky. According to Cruz and the Undefeated team, they requested to have more time to work on their Air Jordan 4 project, eventually finding inspiration in an MA-1 flight jacket. In an interview with Complex, Union founder and Undefeated creative director Chris Gibbs and Undefeated co-founder James Bond sort of dance around the topic of Eminem having any involvement in them switching to the MA-1 color scheme. Gibbs started out by saying, “Are we allowed to talk about that?” before Bond gives a politically correct answer, “Throughout a kind of back and forth and different samplings, I think things come to life, and there might be some truth to it.”

Rumor has it that after Eminem spotted the BlackBerry-colored AJ 4s at Nike’s WHQ, he made a deal with Undefeated and Jordan Brand to use that shoe, which eventually became the Air Jordan 4 Encore.

As mentioned above, Undefeated’s project on the Jordan 4 was the very first instance where Jordan Brand would use an outside partner for a collaborative release, something that has today become commonplace. Even after the Undefeated 4s, a collab Air Jordan was a rarity, but even going off of that era’s standards for sneaker production, the Undefeated AJ 4 was limited. Only 72 pairs were produced and raffled off both online and at the retailer’s original location.

Eminem’s Air Jordan 4 Encore was even more limited and harder to acquire than the Undefeated. Unlike the shop’s project, Marshall Mathers’ pair was limited to just 50 units and was only given to Em's friends and family.

Both sneakers have since gone down in the history books, garnering tens of thousands of dollars on the aftermarket and becoming milestones in sneaker culture. In 2017, Jordan Brand would retro the Encore Jordan 4 in an ultra-limited run for charity, though with some minor differences in color. That brings us to today, where the Undefeated x Air Jordan 4 has finally returned.

Luckily for sneakerheads in 2025, there are plenty more pairs to go around, and prices are nowhere near the $50,000+ that the pair once fetched. On the day of this writing, Nike SNKRS did an Exclusive Access release for the Undefeated x Air Jordan 4, just over three weeks removed from Undefeated’s raffle, online, and in-store release, and aftermarket prices are hovering around $350. If you take into account shipping/taxes on the $230 retail price, it isn’t THAT much more than paying retail. Copping on resale also isn’t that hard a pill to swallow, considering how much the sneaker would have cost you even just a year ago.

The Undefeated x Air Jordan 4 and Eminem’s Encore AJ 4 have played pivotal roles in sneaker culture. Basically any sneakerhead entering the game for the last twenty years has learned the story of the 72 pairs from La Brea and of Eminem’s friends-and-family AJ 4. When viewing their origin story, it’s kind of crazy that two of the rarest and most sought-after sneakers were (allegedly) birthed from a quick convo inside a sneaker shop in LA on a random evening.

For sneakerheads of all generations, owning the Undefeated x Air Jordan 4 is truly owning a piece of sneaker history, even if the 2025 retro has small tweaks that differentiate it from the OG. The mystique may not be exactly the same as it once was, and the shoe will now forever have an asterisk due to this re-release, but its legacy has now evolved. Twenty years from now, you can tell your kids about the Undefeated 4s, but with the context that you were able to wear the pair.

Nicholas Vlahos

Sneakerhead from South Florida who turned his passion into a career. When not writing for Sole Retriever, I enjoy attending concerts and catching the latest movies. Email: nick@soleretriever.com