The Air Jordan 12 Retro "Flu Game" is the most story-laden sneaker in the Air Jordan 12 catalog — and the 2025 retro is only the fifth release in 28 years, nine years after the last pair landed in 2016. The story the shoe carries is one of the most documented and most replayed moments in basketball history: June 11, 1997. Game 5 of the NBA Finals. The Bulls and the Jazz tied at 2-2. Michael Jordan, severely ill from what was initially reported as the flu and later believed to be food poisoning from a pizza delivered the night before, took the court in Salt Lake City when most people expected him to sit. He played 44 minutes — more than any other player in the game — and delivered 38 points, 3 steals, and 5 assists in a 90-88 Bulls victory that put Chicago up 3-2. The Bulls won the series in six. The shoe on his feet that night became one of the most mythologized objects in sports history, and its colorway — black tumbled leather and Varsity Red — became impossible to separate from the performance it was worn during. The 2025 retro also carries a behind-the-scenes story of its own: Jordan Brand originally planned a "Heritage Twist" variant to replace the OG release, and the collector community's unified backlash against that plan was significant enough that Jordan Brand reversed course entirely and committed to the straight OG-faithful execution the shoe deserved.

The 2025 build is confirmed as the most OG-faithful "Flu Game" retro since the original 1997 pair — correcting construction details that prior retros accumulated over four release cycles. The premium black tumbled leather upper returns with the dense, textured surface quality that defines the AJ12's material identity, with signature rising-sun inspired stitch lines running across every panel — the stitching pattern Tinker Hatfield based on the Japanese Rising Sun flag aesthetic that informed the silhouette's entire design language. The Varsity Red lizard-textured mudguard wraps the lower profile with the scale-patterned reptilian overlay that has always been the colorway's most distinctive material detail — the texture adding dimension to the red panels that a smooth leather would never achieve. A Jumpman emblem on the tongue and heel tab carries the identity branding, while the semi-translucent red rubber outsole with black herringbone traction pods and an exposed carbon fiber shank plate complete a sole unit that delivers performance credentials and the colorway's signature underfoot red in one continuous structure. The full-length Zoom Air cushioning unit within a lightweight Phylon midsole provides the responsive underfoot feel that made the AJ12 a legitimate performance basketball shoe in its original era. OG-style packaging closes the presentation with the same archival respect Jordan Brand brought to the construction.