Travis Scott x Air Jordan 4 'Cactus Jack'

Houston on a Jordan 4

On June 1, 2018, release-news sites reported that Travis Scott's Air Jordan 4 would officially release on June 9. The shoe was presented as his first collaboration with Jordan Brand, a nod to his Houston roots built on the Air Jordan 4 that Tinker Hatfield designed in 1989. Nike's own launch text described the shoe as celebrating 'Travis Scott, hip-hop artist, record label founder and Houston sports fan extraordinaire,' with a palette of red, white and light blue drawn from an earlier era of Houston football.

That era was the Houston Oilers. The team began play in 1960 as a charter member of the American Football League, won the first two AFL championships, and stayed in Houston through the 1996 season before moving to Tennessee, where it played as the Tennessee Oilers and then, from 1999, as the Titans. Scott was born in Houston in 1991, so the Oilers he grew up with were a team that left town before he was old enough to see much of it. The University Blue suede, black and red of the shoe are the colors of that team.

Whether the Jordan 4 was literally his first Jordan Brand product depends on how one counts. A list of Scott's Nike collaborations on his encyclopedia entry includes a Jordan Trunner LX launched in 2017, a year before the Jordan 4. Release coverage in 2018 nonetheless treated the Jordan 4 as his first true Jordan collaboration, and it is the shoe that started the run that followed.

Jacques Webster of Missouri City

Travis Scott was born Jacques Bermon Webster II on April 30, 1991, in Houston. He spent his first years with his grandmother in Houston's South Park neighborhood before moving to Missouri City, a suburb bordering southwest Houston. He graduated from Elkins High School at 17 and left the University of Texas at San Antonio in his second year to pursue music.

In 2012 he signed with Epic Records and took a publishing deal as an in-house producer with Kanye West's GOOD Music; in 2013 he entered a joint venture with T.I.'s Grand Hustle Records. His debut album, Rodeo, came out on September 4, 2015. In 2017 he founded his own label, Cactus Jack Records, distributed by Epic, and the label's name became the brand that runs through his sneakers.

The Jordan 4 arrived eight weeks before his third album, Astroworld, named for a defunct Houston theme park. Released August 3, 2018, it debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with 537,000 album-equivalent units in its first week and produced his first Hot 100 number one, 'Sicko Mode.' The shoe and the album made 2018 the year Scott's Houston identity became a product line.

A pickup in Houston

Nike sold the shoe at $225 through select Jordan Brand retailers and its own site on June 9, 2018, in men's sizes only. Ahead of that, Nike's launch app offered a reservation for Houston: buyers could reserve the Air Jordan IV 'Travis Scott' for purchase and pickup in Houston, Texas, on June 8 or 9.

Pre-release reporting was not always right. One early detailed look said the shoe would release on June 23 and that pairs would be limited to approximately 13,000 to 15,000. The June 23 date did not hold, and Nike has never published a production figure, so the pair count should be read as a rumor, not a fact.

The shoe landed in the same summer as Scott's second Air Force 1, the 'Sail,' which released August 10, 2018, a week after Astroworld. By the time a 2020 profile called him 'arguably the biggest sneaker collaborator,' quoting a resale executive, his list of reworked Nike models ran from the Air Force 1 through the Jordan 1, Jordan 4 and Jordan 6 to the Dunk.

How to read the shoe

The upper is University Blue suede, with black on the wings, the netting and parts of the midsole for contrast. The liner is Varsity Red, and a speckled pattern runs across the black heel tab and other trim. A 2018 detailed look described the heel tab as speckled black with red Cactus Jack and Jumpman logos.

Branding is split left and right. The retail pair carries Cactus Jack branding on the left heel and a Jumpman on the other; the right insole also reads Cactus Jack. Inside the left tongue a reversed Travis Scott tag nods to details of the original Jordan 4. Nike's launch text points to the inside tongue and heel as the places that set this edition apart for Cactus Jack Records.

Complete pairs include a Cactus Jack hangtag in blue suede. Product descriptions compare the look to the Eminem Jordan 4, another blue suede pair, but the lighter blue, red liner and speckled trim are specific to Scott's shoe.

The pairs nobody could buy

Around the public release sat versions that never reached stores. Unreleased friends-and-family pairs pushed the original look further with Nike Air branding on the heel. The best known is a purple suede pair with black netting and a translucent gray sole, first seen on DJ Chase B during the launch of the 'Houston Oilers' shoe and worn by Scott through 2018; a dealer listing says it was eventually released as a friends-and-family drop in 2019.

Those purple pairs are a separate shoe with a different product code, not a variant of 308497-406. A collector buying the retail 'Cactus Jack' should expect University Blue, not purple.

The partnership kept going. In April 2019 Scott announced Cactus Jack Air Jordan 1s, and by 2024 Jordan Brand had issued his own model, the Jumpman Jack. In September 2026 a sneaker writer, looking back eight years, wrote that the Jordan 4 'helped establish the formula: familiar Jordan DNA, unmistakable Travis details and scarcity capable of turning a release into an event.'

The numbers

Release date

June 9, 2018 (Houston pickup June 8 or 9)

Retail price

$225

Style code

308497-406

Sizes

Men's only

Production

Not published by Nike

Timeline

1. 1960

   The Houston Oilers begin play as a charter member of the American Football League.

2. 1989

   The Air Jordan 4, designed by Tinker Hatfield, is first released.

3. Apr 30, 1991

   Jacques Bermon Webster II, later Travis Scott, is born in Houston.

4. 1997

   After the 1996 season the Oilers move to Tennessee; they become the Titans in 1999.

5. Sep 4, 2015

   Scott releases his debut album, Rodeo.

6. 2017

   Scott founds Cactus Jack Records and releases his first Air Force 1 with Nike.

7. Jun 1, 2018

   Release coverage announces the Air Jordan 4 'Travis Scott' for June 9.

8. Jun 8, 2018

   Reserved pairs become available for pickup in Houston, on June 8 or 9.

9. Jun 9, 2018

   The shoe releases at $225 at select Jordan Brand retailers and Nike.com.

10. Aug 3, 2018

    Astroworld is released and debuts at number one on the Billboard 200.

11. Aug 10, 2018

    Scott's second Air Force 1, the 'Sail,' releases.

12. 2019

    The purple suede friends-and-family Jordan 4 is released to a closed circle, per a dealer listing.

13. Apr 30, 2019

    Scott announces his Cactus Jack Air Jordan 1 for release in May.

14. Feb 28, 2020

    A magazine profile calls Scott 'arguably the biggest sneaker collaborator.'

15. May 2024

    Jordan Brand releases Scott's own model, the Jumpman Jack, which sells out online.

16. Sep 14, 2026

    A September 2026 report lists the lowest asking price on a major resale marketplace at $692.

The world in 2018

• Jun 7, 2018

  The Washington Capitals win their first Stanley Cup, beating the Vegas Golden Knights.

• Jun 8, 2018

  The Golden State Warriors sweep the Cleveland Cavaliers for the NBA championship.

• Jun 8, 2018

  Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain dies.

• Jun 8, 2018

  Oak Ridge National Laboratory unveils Summit as the world's most powerful supercomputer.

• Jun 12, 2018

  President Trump meets North Korea's Kim Jong-un in Singapore.

• Jun 27, 2018

  Justice Anthony Kennedy announces his retirement from the Supreme Court.

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Travis Scott x Air Jordan 4 'Cactus Jack' is number 55 of 100 in the sneakers entries of the FLOAT 100. 22 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (27 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Houston Oilers, whose colors the shoe wears, left Houston after the 1996 season and have been the Tennessee Titans since 1999.
• Astroworld, the album released eight weeks after the shoe, is named for a Houston theme park that no longer exists.
• The reversed Travis Scott tag inside the left tongue is a nod to details on the original 1989 Jordan 4.
• Unreleased friends-and-family versions carried Nike Air branding on the heel, pushing the shoe closer to the original look.
• A purple suede friends-and-family pair was first spotted on DJ Chase B at the launch of the blue shoe.
• An early report said the shoe would release June 23, 2018; it came out two weeks earlier, on June 9.