Shortly after Jordan's first retirement from Basketball, the Air Jordan 9 was released into the market. The announcement came as a shock to the whole world, because the greatest Basketball player in the history of the NBA is retiring at the age of 30. It was also in the summer of 1993 that Jordan lost his father. The Air Jordan IX was also the only shoe that Michael Jordan didn't get to wear on any NBA season game. The clamor after his retirement didn't affect the sales of the Jordan Brand Shoes . In fact, Nike reached out to MJ and created a cleated shoe that he could use for Baseball, thus the creation of AJ 9.5. The AJ 9 Kicks were the simplest design that Nike ever came out with. Except for the monstrous sole and the number 23 etched on the side, there was not much difference between the AJ 9 and the past Air Jordan Shoes .