As the first Air Jordan model released after Jordan's 1999 2nd retirement from the NBA, it shared a similarity to the Air Jordan IX in that Jordan never played professionally in the shoe. There was also concern about the shoe's comfort. The tongue of the shoe stuck out to mimic Jordan's well known habit of sticking his tongue out while playing. The woven kevlar Jordan XV was modeled after the X-15.

This was to be the last Air Jordan model design Tinker Hatfield's last Air Jordan but would later came back to design the Air Jordan XX model. This Air Jordan model however is widely recognized as being somewhat of a failure in terms of performance and style.