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You never get a second chance to make a first impression—that is, unless you’re an emerging NBA star dropping multiple versions of your new signature shoe amid a historic playoff run. Because here again, the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards is proving to be an exception.
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Hours after putting on “Georgia Red Clay” editions of his Adidas AE 1 line for their first game action in March, Edwards posterized Utah’s John Collins so viciously that both players walked away injured. The NBA’s clip of the dunk garnered nearly 11 million views , and—two weeks later—the newest AE 1’s became the latest release of his to quickly sell out on Adidas’ website.
Come playoff time, Edwards sported a new, slimmed down version of the sneaker, dubbed the AE 1 Low “Mural.” Over three round one contests, he averaged 28 points and eight rebounds in the kicks during a sweep of the Phoenix Suns.
Each of his first impressions has seemingly outdone the last.
“He’s probably the most interesting and exciting player in the NBA right now, and that’s reflected in the data we see for his sneakers,” StockX merchandising director for sneakers Drew Haines said.
On the StockX site, Ant’s salmony sneaks are currently selling for 22% more than their original retail price. Edwards may even be able to take credit for Adidas stock’s 30% increase over the last six months.
“It’s been years since we’ve seen a basketball shoe that has been completely sold out on any brand’s site,” industry tracker Mike Sykes wrote last week. According to ComplexEdwards has made “basketball sneakers feel cool again.”
Leveraging a burgeoning hoops legend is, of course, the oldest trick in the shoe marketing trade. But there have been changes in recent years to set the stage for a broader resurgence, too.
In 2018, the NBA loosened its uniform restrictions, allowing players to wear sneakers of any color during any game (creativity was previously limited to tentpoles like Christmas Day). The league quickly saw increased interest in player footwear and launched its own NBAKicks social media accounts to boost notable moments.
“When I started styling there was no tunnel cam,” said creative consultant Megan Ann Wilson, who remembers having to cajole photographers into shooting players’ pregame looks 10 years ago. “Now it’s normal … It’s become so blown open.”
Less than two years after the NBA opened up those restrictions, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted shoe companies’ production roadmaps but also spurred a sneaker collecting boom, as digital platforms emerged to streamline shopping and give obsessed fans new ways to track and discuss what the pros were wearing.
Now, Edwards is leading a new generation of stars seizing the momentum. They’re also being courted by a new crop of brands eager to ride the wave.
The biggest names left in the Western Conference playoffs—Edwards (Adidas), Karl-Anthony Towns (Nike), Jamal Murray (New Balance), Nikola Jokic (361 Degrees), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Converse), Luka Doncic (Jordan), and Kyrie Irving (Anta)—all represent different shoe brands as international companies and historic names vie for attention. Puma, meanwhile, has had success with LaMelo Ball while Skechers officially signed Joel Embiid to a deal last month. Victor Wembanyama and Caitlin Clark seem sure to shake things up further once their Nike designs drop.
Twenty-six players in total entered the year with their own signature shoe deal at a major brand, a 50% increase in the last few years. As more companies make more distinct shoes for more players, courts have become crowded with cacophonous color combinations in a vibrant reminder that—at some level—pro athletes are each playing their own game.
“You can tell that the players are choosing the things that are going to help them stick out on the court,” Haines said. “They’re trying to make themselves marketable, make themselves interesting.”
And you don’t even need to have a signature line to get in on the action. In the years following the NBA’s loosened restrictions, many players turned to independent artists and designers to create one-off custom kicks featuring their favorite icons, cartoons or quotes. Increasingly though, shoe companies have offered more players their own editions—known as “Player Exclusives” or PEs.
The “Huevos Bancheros” Jordan Tatum 1 PEs, for instance, reportedly started with a fan’s Twitter recommendation that a Jordan Brand rep found and presented to Orlando forward Paolo Banchero as a potential inspiration for a shoe design, which ultimately debuted last season. Last week, Banchero wore a new custom design of Jordan Tatum 2s in a Game 7 loss to Cleveland, this time inspired by the Know Pressure tattoo he boasts on his shooting arm.
While they await their own models, dueling guards Tyrese Haliburton and Jalen Brunson have broken out a series of PEs as well. The personalized shoes can sway fans into buying similar versions or even inspire publicly available models down the road.
“Brands are really hoping that a moment can create a story,” Game Seven senior director of creative strategy Max Doblin said. “If a player is wearing a PE and they go off for 50 or have an amazing play that’s super memorable, that PE can then inform a colorway for sale in the future.”
The sneakers Michael Jordan happened to wear on June 11, 1997, for example, would only retroactively become known as the Flu Game 12s. Combine an eye-catching look with amazing play, and you too can have a viral hit.
Putting it all together—the new freedom of expression, the expanded corporate design and distribution capabilities, the online crowds feverishly discussing each new drop—it’s clear why fashion sociologist Yuniya Kawamura believes we’re in a new, “third wave” of the sneaker phenomenon, following an underground moment in the 1970s and the Michael Jordan-boosted cultural attention shoes grabbed in the 1980s and 1990s.
SpringHill VP creative director for design Alex Medina recently got to play a part in that movement. LeBron James’ company has used shoes to tell its message on multiple occasions, and over a year ago a handful of employees teamed with a similar number of Nike experts to build a shoe representing The Shop TV show.
But Medina had no forewarning that James would be wearing the shoes for the first time in what turned out to be his final game of the season against the Nuggets last Monday. “I was like, ‘That looks oddly familiar,’” Medina said with a laugh. “It was a pleasant surprise.”
He quickly called his family over to point out the shoes adorned with a velvety metallic golden upper, a marbled sole and a pair of scissors on the top of the heel. They were impossible to miss.
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