Is the Eminem “Encore” Air Jordan 4 Canceled? Here Is What Was Actually Reported, and What Wasn't

A shoe that was never officially announced has now been unofficially unannounced. Here is where the Encore 4 really stands.

The Eminem x Air Jordan 4 "Encore," style code JJ3098-400, is no longer on the release calendar it was reported to be on. That is the whole of the confirmed news. On Wednesday, September 23, Sneaker Bar Detroit added an update to its release page saying the pair "is no longer expected to release as part of Jordan Brand's Summer 2027 lineup" and "has reportedly been removed from the calendar." A day later, Sole Retriever cited Kicks Finder saying the same thing, with the shoe's "status up in the air at the moment."

Several headlines turned that into "canceled." Neither report says so. Sneaker Bar Detroit wrote that "it is unclear if the release has simply been pushed back or scrapped altogether," and Sole Retriever's own story says removal does not necessarily mean the shoe is dead. Nike and Jordan Brand have said nothing, which is consistent: they never confirmed the release to begin with.

What was reported in August

The retail story broke on Friday, August 7, via Sneaker Files and the leak account @zSneakerheadz, and spread across the sneaker press over the weekend. The reported details:

• Release date: May 15, 2027, via SNKRS and select Jordan Brand retailers
• Price: $230
• Style code: JJ3098-400
• Colorway: Blue Ribbon/Game Purple-Stealth-Black

The design was said to keep the original's blue nubuck and black accents, with Game Purple replacing the Varsity Red details, "Eminem" lettering behind the tongue, and a shape closer to the original 1989 Air Jordan 4. Whether the heel would carry a Jumpman, like the 2005 pair, or Nike Air branding was never settled. Keep one detail in mind: the images that went around in August were mock-ups, not leaked samples. Complex noted at the time that Jordan Brand had yet to confirm anything.

There is one more thread. Sneaker Bar Detroit's update also says Eminem's longtime manager, Paul Rosenberg, responded "Nope" to reports of the retail release. That would be the most important sentence in this whole story, but the outlet does not say where he said it or exactly what he was replying to, and we could not find the original comment. Treat it as reported by one outlet, not confirmed.

The Encore history, with verified numbers

The reason a $230 retro got this much attention is that no Encore 4 has ever been sold at retail. Here is the lineage, with every figure checked.

2005, the original. Around 50 pairs were made for Eminem's friends and family to mark Encore, the album released in November 2004. The count has never been officially published, and every outlet hedges it as "about 50." The origin story, as told by House of Heat and Sole Retriever, is that Em saw an Undefeated sample in the same blue at Nike's headquarters and ended up with his own version. Undefeated's Air Jordan 4, limited to 72 pairs in 2005, went down as Jordan Brand's first outside collaboration. Eminem's pair very nearly held that title.

2015, the Carhartt 4. This is a different shoe that often gets mixed up with the Encore. Ten pairs of the Eminem x Carhartt x Air Jordan 4 were auctioned on eBay for charity in November 2015. They raised $227,552 in total. The top pair, a size 9, went for $30,100 and the cheapest, a size 7, went for $18,750. The money went to a Detroit literacy-through-songwriting program through the Marshall Mathers Foundation.

2017, the Revival-era run. Jordan Brand remade the Encore in 23 pairs. The public's only shot was a StockX campaign that ran December 14 to 20, 2017: $10 donation entries to the Marshall Mathers Foundation, with the Encore 4 as the top prize. A size 12 from this run sold on StockX for $17,468 on May 13, 2021, according to House of Heat.

The records. A signed 2005 pair sold for $50,800 at Sotheby's Emergence auction, which closed December 18, 2023. We confirmed that figure on the Sotheby's lot page. The most recent public sale came from Em's own closet: at Julien's on August 25, a signed Encore 4 promo realized $19,200, a $15,000 hammer plus the 28% buyer's premium, which was exactly its low estimate. The two signed Carhartt 4s in the same sale realized $16,000 each. Our full Julien's results breakdown has every lot, and our pre-sale photo gallery shows that Encore pair up close.

Look at those Julien's numbers against the Sotheby's result. A signed Encore from Eminem's own collection brought well under half of the 2023 record, less than three weeks after a $230 retail version was reported. It is fair to wonder whether the retail news was already weighing on the grail.

Encore (Deluxe Explicit Version), the 2004 album the shoe was made to celebrate.

What "removed from the calendar" usually means

Release calendars this far out are not Nike documents. They are assembled by leak accounts and insiders from retailer line lists and early product data, and they change constantly. When a shoe drops off one, there are three usual explanations. It was pushed to a later season. It was reworked and may come back under a new style code or colorway. Or it was scrapped. From outside, you usually cannot tell which until it shows up again or never does. Sole Retriever made the same point: collabs and inline pairs fall off future plans all the time, and some come back.

For a collaboration, there is also a fourth possibility that the Rosenberg report points toward: the artist's side never signed off on the plan as leaked. If that is what happened, "canceled" is the wrong word for something that was never officially on.

What to watch

• JJ3098-400 turning up again on a retailer list or a Fall or Holiday 2027 calendar. The same code in a new window means a delay. A new code means a rework.
• Anything on the record from Eminem's side, meaning Rosenberg, Shady Records or the Marshall Mathers Foundation. Every Eminem Jordan 4 the public has ever been able to get, in 2015 and 2017, went through a charity sale for his foundation, the same cause as this summer's Julien's sale.
• Real product photos. There are still no leaked samples. A shoe that is actually in production usually leaks before release.
• Resale on the 2005 and 2017 pairs. If collectors believe the retail version is dead, prices on the originals should climb again.

So where does that leave it on October 1? Not released, not confirmed, and not officially canceled either, because you cannot cancel something Nike never announced. The Encore 4 went back to where it has been since 2005: a shoe everybody knows and almost nobody can buy.