Yesterday, the internet spent hours on end roasting what is reportedly a picture of Jayson Tatum’s upcoming signature shoe after it leaked on the internet.
To be clear, as I wrote when it happened, the pictures we saw were not actually the official images coming from Nike. And when you’re dealing with unofficial leaked images, the shoe in question almost never looks flattering. So while the Tatum sneaker didn’t look great, it’s highly likely that the pictures we saw didn’t really do them justice.
When reporters asked Tatum about the shoes he explained exactly that to them, saying that the picture is “not necessarily how they look.”
That’s not the best way to couch things, but we’ll take it.
Jayson Tatum says the leaked photo of his first signature sneaker with @Jumpman23 is “not real” and he’ll be wearing the shoe “very very soon” 👀🌟 https://t.co/qOzlxgq7L1 pic.twitter.com/K2qDHOVlTd
— Nice Kicks (@nicekicks) January 13, 2023
“Truthfully, that’s not the real picture. I seen the ‘not real’ version come out today and the kid in me wanted to post the real picture. But, you know. I’m excited — I’ll be wearing them very, very soon. That’s not necessarily exactly how they look. But I’m excited. It’s been a long time coming.”
This could mean a couple different things. When Tatum says the picture isn’t “the real picture,” he could just mean that — as we said before — these aren’t the official images posted by Nike. Yes, it does make a difference. It won’t change the shoe’s look, but it does change the presentation.
The other thing he could be pointing to is that this isn’t the look of his signature shoe at all. This feels less likely, though. He focused on the picture in his statement — not the sneaker.
Regardless, it seems we’ll actually see these joints coming into the light soon whether it’s via official images or Tatum just wearing them on the court.
It’d do everyone some good to withhold judgment until we get that.