Travis Scott is a big enough deal that the relaunch of his hard seltzer alone gets his rabid fanbase going. The world's leading luxury labels are at this dude's beck 'n call.

But though Scott's ravenous fans will pay up for anything he does, sneakerheads are a little more jaded. They're currently side-eyeing Scott's signature Jordan shoes, which are incapable of stacking up to older Cactus Jack kicks.

Or so they say.

It's not even that Scott's latest Nike sneakers are bad shoes per se. They're still beige and still wear reversed Swooshes, if you're into that sort of thing.

The primary issue that folks are taking with Scott's new sneakers is that the rapper's most recent Nike models lack the urgency of the fan-favorite silhouettes he previously tackled, like the Nike SB Dunk Low and Air Jordan 1.

The shoe primarily in question is Travis Scott's Jumpman Jack, an alleged signature sneaker that Scott has been confusingly teasing for months, going on a year at this point, though they're rumored to have a Spring 2024 release date. Seen in fits and spurts even before he released long-awaited album Utopia, Scott's signature Jordan shoe is such an enigma that it's since become the stuff of streetwear suburban legend.

It's also a really weird shoe for Travis Scott to make his own.

Under his Cactus Jack banner, Scott most famously developed unique twists on inarguable Nike classics, like the aforementioned Dunk, AJ1, Jordan 4, and Jordan 6.

He made 'em brown (or beige or sometimes blue), he reversed the Swoosh, he added a little logo — fans satisfied, sneakerheads satiated.

These shoes are Scott's most famous Nike collaborations and they're the ones that command the highest resale values, which I'd argue is perhaps the single best indicator of otherwise ephemeral sneaker demand.

But Scott has also created some other shoes with Nike that aren't remembered quite so fondly: consider his oddball (but excellent, in my opinion) variation on the Air Max 270 that turned the futuristic runner into a warped space-age stepper. They weren't unpopular, they just aren't beloved in the same way as, say, Scott's fragment design sneakers.

There were also two Travis Scott Nike Air Trainers, sporty sneakers far less approachable than his Dunks and Jordans.

The Air Trainer is an aberration in Scott's sneaker repertoire, one of his only Nike collaborations to regularly resell below its retail value.

It's also clearly one of the most impactful things he's designed with Nike, though, as its influence is felt on subsequent sneakers like the Jumpman Jack: notice the cross-training-inspired sole, mesh paneling, and forefoot strap.

Similarly, John McEnroe's own signature Nike shoe, the Mac Attack, is an odd recipient of the Cactus Jack treatment, if you can even describe Scott's grey and black colorway as such.

You again have a monochrome flat-footed court sneaker with an almost anonymous low-top profile and, uh, little else.

It doesn't go unappreciated that Scott is stepping out of the box (literally!) by co-signing shoes that lean towards tennis rather than basketball but the end result still lacks the oomph of a remixed classic like Scott's now-signature Jordan 1 Low.

Yes, Scott has the clout to make the historically passé low-top Jordan 1 a certified banger (resale: upwards of four figures) but even his association may not be enough to get sneakerheads truly excited about court sneakers.

"So Travis got y’all liking team Jordan’s now huh," one Instagram commenter asked below an image of the Jumpman Jacks, referring to the less exclusive (and therefore less covetable) Jordan sneakers.

"Imagine if it wasn't a Travis shoe," another posited. "They'd NOT sell out but sit on shelves for months until someone collabs [sic] with this silhouette."

There are ample positive comments too, to be clear, but the reaction is clearly not the one-sided enthusiasm generated by Scott's high-top Jordan 1s.

Scott's signature Jordan shoes will inevitably sell out as is typical of most things printed with Travis Scott branding but it's mostly because of their Travis Scott branding.

Indeed, as the commenter pointed out, would actually there be any hype around these things were they not co-created with an incredibly popular musician?

It's a different case from even the outré Air Trainer and Air Max 270 — at least those had fun designs.

The big issue, bigger than the unusual court sneaker inspiration, is that the Jumpman Jack doesn't really feel very Cactus Jack.

For a signature sneaker borne of one of the biggest names in sneakerdom, the shoe is strangely unmemorable. And for a guy whose contribution to the Nike canon is the normalization of the reversed Swoosh — a big deal, actually — you'd think that Scott's own Jordan sneaker would be more... Travis Scott.