Tag: signature shoes

The Anthony Edwards-Michael Jordan comparisons live on through this vicious sneaker commercial from Adidas

“[Expletive] buddy.” WHAT.

Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves might have been knocked out of the playoffs by the Mavericks in the most embarrassing way possible, but let me tell you something — I don’t care about any of that today.

Why? Because Edwards made me completely forget about it with his latest “Face of the League” ad with Adidas for his signature AE 1 shoe.

The campaign for these shoes has generally just been great. Edwards has been roasting rival brands and their athletes from the beginning while flaunting the AE 1, which is undoubtedly the best signature shoe in the NBA right now.

But, yo. This latest commercial? I don’t know how to describe it other than visceral.

In it, Edwards has a “receipts” machine that basically brings up old tweets and quotes from people. He goes at Carmelo Anthony hard in this one. He says “[expletive] buddy” after hearing a criticism from Cam’ron. He laughs at the rest of his haters.

It’s so incredibly petty and so incredibly perfect. I love it so much.

I know it’s en vogue to compare Anthony Edwards to Michael Jordan. Sure, you can see some similarities in their games.

But tell me y’all can’t see this being a Jordan sneaker commercial back in the day? I definitely get MJ vibes from this. It’s easily one of the best sneaker commercials I’ve seen in years.

It’s so perfect because it’s so Ant. This is legitimately how he seems to be. It doesn’t change when he’s on the court or when he’s in a press conference or when he’s doing a commercial. He’s always giving us his thoughts, unfiltered and uncensored. It’s great.

Keep it coming, Ant Man. More AE 1 madness, please.

Adidas (accidentally?) roasted Kevin Durant after he disrespected Anthony Edwards’ new signature shoes

Bring the tweet back, Adidas! It was so perfect

My favorite thing in the world is when the #brands get spicy with each other. After all, who doesn’t love a good corporate beef?

The spice level between Nike and Adidas just hit a million. The Scoville rating is going crazy. A quick little internet dustup between Adidas and Kevin Durant (who is a Nike athlete) has the internet on tilt.

Adidas casually roasted Kevin Durant online after the Suns’ superstar disrespected Anthony Edwards’ new signature shoe, the AE 1.

Here’s the deal. Anthony Edwards was asked who he’d want to see wearing his signature shoes someday. He mentioned Kevin Durant. It was respectful, but also pretty funny because he was so serious.

Kevin Durant is a Nike athlete. Anthony Edwards’ new shoes are Adidas. KD might be one of Edwards’ favorite players, but he’s never wearing these. Sorry, Ant-Man.

KD was kind enough to let him know that…in a not-so-kind way. He said he wouldn’t even put his big toe (that’s a REALLY big toe, btw) in those joints.

Like I said, y’all, the spice levels here are wild. But it didn’t end there, though. It wasn’t Edwards who clapped back. Instead, it was Adidas. Or, well, uh, whoever is running the Adidas social account, anyway.

Whoever it is told Kevin Durant he was “dusty” and about to “retire soon anyway” in a since-deleted tweet.

Just completely roasted KD, man. He’s cooked. This was so perfect. Unfortunately, though, whoever it was didn’t stand on business. The tweet was deleted shortly after and they came back to apologize. Well, kind of.

They just let KD know they meant to send this from the burner. That’s all.

Honestly, leaving it up would’ve been perfect, but this will still suffice. Petty sneaker beefs are awesome.

This completely broke the internet for a good 20 minutes. It was awesome.

Adidas turned its past into its future by transforming an old Kobe Bryant signature shoe model into something special

The Adidas Kobe models have a new life. Check it out on this episode of Special Delivery.

Many people don’t know this, but Kobe Bryant was once a signature shoe athlete with Adidas.

Most people don’t know that because the models aren’t looked at too fondly across the board. For good reason. They’re big, boxy and clunky. They’re just generally not thought to be as good as the models Bryant produced with Nike.

But there’s still a nostalgia that comes with them that has made them charming in recent years. Things have turned around a bit. Now, Adidas wants to tap into that.

According to data from eBay’s sneaker department, the Kobe 1 signature model the new Crazy Infinity 2.5 is modeled after is one of the most searched Adidas Kobe sneakers on the platform by volume so far in 2023. Three of the top seven models are all Kobe 1s.

That growing popularity is why Adidas is tapping into that with the new Crazy Infinity 2.5. The brand completely transformed Bryant’s old signature sneaker into something completely different. Fans are absolutely loving it so far.

On this episode of Special Delivery, we tap into why. Check it out.

Ranking the 20 greatest signature sneaker lines ever, from Michael Jordan’s (duh) to Steph Curry’s (yes, they’re good!)

Here are the best signature sneaker lines of all time.

Generally, when people think about signature shoes they only think about a handful of athletes.

The Michael Jordans of the world. LeBron James. Steph Curry. The same names that we’ve been constantly talking about over the last few years. That’s where most of the signature sneaker conversation goes.

RELATED: A ranking of every LeBron James signature shoe

But there’s so much more to it than that. There are so many different athletes with so many different pairs that were so incredibly good. And they don’t all just come from the NBA — there’s lots of goodness from athletes in other leagues. There are even some great signature lines that come from outside of basketball.

Here’s a definitive ranking of the 20 best we’ve ever seen. Enjoy.

LeBron James gave fans a first look at his 21st signature shoe and everyone thinks they look like Kobes

LeBron James’ 21st signature shoe looks solid

LeBron James’ signature shoe line has been pretty hit-or-miss throughout his career.

We’ve seen it so many times before. At certain points, he’s had the best looking signature basketball line out there. Other times, Bron’s shoes have looked like space boots with how big and bulky they are.

The LeBron 20 was good, though. Really good. So, with the next NBA season slowly but surely creeping up on us, everyone was waiting to see what James’ 21st signature shoe would look like.

Luckily for us, James was kind enough to give the internet a sneak preview of his sneaker on Instagram. And I’m pleased to report that, yes, these look pretty good.

There’s definitely a bit of a Kobe 4 vibe to these sneakers. For those of you who don’t know, here’s what that looks like.

The resemblance is there. While that can be bad if done incorrectly, these seem to be solid. While we haven’t seen more colorways or official pictures, people were still quick to give their opinion on these sneakers.

Luckily for James and Nike, the feedback was mostly positive. Though, many people also pointed out the Kobe thing.

Luka Doncic’s new signature shoe continues a really smart trend in basketball shoes for Jordan Brand

Luka Doncic has one of the best signature basketball shoes out there

Jordan Brand has slowly, but surely, built an incredible signature shoe lineup with some of the best young talent in the NBA.

The brand already had folks like Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul in hand. But it’s built out its future with signature lines for stars like Jayson Tatum, Zion Williamson, and Luka Doncic. The results have been solid so far.

On today’s episode of Special Delivery, we take a look at Luka Doncic’s second signature shoe with Jordan Brand and talk about what the future could potentially look like for the brand as their young stars continue to get bigger and bigger.

Tap in.

Why Ja Morant’s new Ja 1 signature shoe is Nike’s most important basketball sneaker in 2023

Ja Morant’s signature shoe is going to carry Nike basketball for years to come

Listen. Ja Morant might not be fine in the West after a 40-point drubbing by the Lakers, but he’s certainly fine in the sneaker game.

The one thing he does have on LeBron James now is that he might have the most important signature shoe with Nike. Don’t leave just yet! I promise I’m not trolling.

Yes, LeBron James’ signature sneaker is Nike’s most popular model. And we know what we’re getting out of it. But Ja Morant’s shoe is the one that Nike absolutely needs to hit right now.

Morant is Nike’s very first Gen Z athlete. LeBron is going to be off the court soon. So is Kevin Durant. Giannis Antetkounmpo is closer to 30 than he is 20.

Morant? He’s got that Gen Z audience down. He’s cool. He can fly. He’s the point guard everyone wants to play like. And that’s why his shoe is so important to what Nike is doing moving forward.

That’s what we talk about on today’s episode of Special Delivery. Tap in.

Jayson Tatum said the images of his signature shoe floating around the internet are ‘not necessarily exactly how they look’

Tatum says he’ll be wearing his sneaker “very, very soon.”

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.

“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.

 

The WNBA finally has a new signature sneaker with Breanna Stewart’s new ‘Stewie 1’ and it’s so cool

Breanna Stewart just changed the game for women in sports everywhere

“It’s been a long time coming.” Or how about “It’s about time,”? Those are the things we normally hear when people talk about Breanna Stewart’s new signature sneaker model, the Stewie 1.

And rightfully so — it’s been more than a decade since a WNBA athlete has had a signature sneaker model. Candace Parker’s Ace Commander with Adidas was the last one and that came in 2010.

But instead of talking about what this means regarding the past, we should begin to talk about what it means for the future.

Signature sneakers are fully back in the WNBA. Elena Delle Donne has one. Candace Parker has another. But the one that kicked it off was Breanna Stewart’s Stewie 1.

She joined us on this week’s episode of Special Delivery to talk about what it means and how this changes the future for so many WNBA athletes to come.

Tap in.

SPECIAL DELIVERY: Rui Hachimura’s new Air Jordan 8 should be the new blueprint for signature shoes

Jordan Brand, this is how you do a signature shoe. Please, give us more.

Signature shoes are cool. It’s always nice to see a piece of your favorite athlete come to life through their footwear.

It’s why when players like Luka Doncic or Zion Williamson get signature models, it’s an exciting time for fans. But…those models don’t always look the greatest.

Signature shoes are hard to make these days — there’s a lot of science that goes into them to have them meet the specifications of the athlete. It makes them hard for regular folks like us to wear.

That’s why, honestly, we don’t need more athlete signature sneakers for on the court. We need them to come off of it.

That’s why I feel like Rui Hachimura’s “Black Samurai” Air Jordan 8 is the best “signature shoe” to come from a younger Jordan Brand athlete yet. They need to do a lot more of this.

Find out why on this week’s episode of Special Delivery.