The Air Jordan 11 Space Jam returns December 12, 2026 at $235 — the year's holiday anchor, and the slow climb in its price tag is a story the hype cycle skips.
December 12, $235
Sneaker News and SneakerFiles confirm a December 12, 2026 release at $235, style code CT8012-900, in Black/Varsity Royal-White with the number 23 on the heel and lower-cut patent leather. The 11 has owned the December slot for years; the brand schedules it like clockwork because it's the most bankable holiday release in the catalog.
The patent-leather machine
The 11 is the dress shoe of the line — patent leather mudguard, ballistic mesh, the silhouette Jordan wore through the 72-win season and beyond. Space Jam, tied to the 1996 film, is the colorway that made the 11 a holiday institution. It's been retro'd repeatedly and still sells out, which is the entire reason it owns December.
Watch the price
The $235 tag is the part worth sitting with. The Space Jam 11 has crept upward release over release, and $235 is now standard for a holiday 11. The brand has trained buyers to absorb annual increases on a guaranteed seller — the shoe people buy for their kids, for the holidays, on muscle memory. That predictability is exactly what lets the price keep moving.
A guaranteed-sale economy
The December 11 functions less like a sneaker release and more like a seasonal tradition the brand monetizes on schedule. Families buy it, resellers buy it, collectors buy it, and the holiday timing means the demand is locked before the shoe even posts. When a product can't miss, the price tag becomes a dial the brand turns at will.
What it means
The Space Jam 11 is canon, but it's also Jordan Brand's most reliable revenue ritual — a shoe so embedded in holiday culture that it sells regardless of construction or cost. That's power, and it cuts both ways. The culture made the December 11 sacred. The brand turned sacred into a price floor that only goes up.