Fans of the Air Jordan 5 have been treated to a slew of original colorways in 2025 thanks to Jordan Brand’s 40th anniversary and the 35th anniversary of the AJ 5 itself, including the Grape and a Reimagined version of the Air Jordan 5 Retro Black Metallic. For 2026, Jordan Brand is continuing its strategy of retroing early 2000s non-OG colorways of Air Jordans (as seen with the Jordan 9 French Blue and Jordan 14 Black University Blue) by bringing back the White Metallic Air Jordan 5.
Let's go through a brief history lesson. In the early 2000s, Jordan Brand was retroing many Air Jordan models for the first time, and to help differentiate these from the originals, they produced a series of sneakers under the “Retro+” moniker.
The concept is fairly similar to the modern “Reimagined” line, although the Retro+ were mainly on non-OG colorways. Kicking it off was the Air Jordan 5 Retro+ White Metallic in 2000, which featured a white leather upper, 23 embroidery on the lateral heel, Jumpman branding on the heel, a reflective tongue, and metallic silver accents on the sole unit.
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
