![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DU5TV7NJLVCKVDHJZL7B6CYCG4.jpeg\")
The Adidas AE1 was dubbed to be 2024’s sneaker of the year by streetwear magazines such as Complex. (Adidas\/Adidas) <\/p>\nNext week, Nike\u2019s Jordan brand will release the Air Jordan 40, the latest model from the iconic basketball sneaker franchise originally introduced for Michael Jordan in 1985. <\/p>\n
While the shoe is designed with on-court performance at the forefront, it\u2019s also meant to stand out beyond the hardwood, with a sleek look and design ethos that Jordan Brand\u2019s chief design officer, Jason Mayden, described as \u201ceffortless versatility.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur product should be able to fly from the court to the classroom for a 16-year-old high school kid in Brooklyn,\u201d said Mayden. \u201cWe know that this product has to exist in multiple modalities.\u201d <\/p>\n
On that front it has competition. For the first time in a long time, a new crop of basketball sneakers is managing to get shoppers\u2019 attention with style as much as performance. There\u2019s the AE 1, Adidas\u2019 signature model for Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, which sneaker outlets such as Complex and Nice Kicks dubbed 2024\u2019s best release; Converse\u2019s Shai 001, the shoe of Oklahoma City Thunder point guard and NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, which has generated excitement online despite not even being available to buy yet; and the A\u2019One, Nike\u2019s shoe for A\u2019ja Wilson of the WNBA\u2019s Las Vegas Aces, sold out in three minutes on Nike\u2019s digital channels in North America upon launch in May, with Nike announcing it would double production in coming seasons on its most recent earnings call.<\/p>\n
The Adidas AE1 was dubbed to be 2024’s sneaker of the year by streetwear magazines such as Complex. (Adidas\/Adidas) <\/p>\n
Visually at least, the shoes are departures from the previous generation of performance basketball shoes, which \u2014 with a few exceptions, like Adidas\u2019 Harden line \u2014 often had similar designs made up of a mesh upper, a few panels for support and an unremarkable midsole. The AE 1 shook up that design language with its honeycomb-esque shell. The Shai 001 has the feel of a futuristic low-top boot and closes with a zipper. Today, the trendiest basketball sneakers look refined, ditching tech-y athletic footwear aesthetics for more elegant silhouettes with lines akin to luxury automobiles. <\/p>\n
\u201cFive to 10 years ago, there was so much visible tech on the product, and it was quite hard to wear in a lifestyle way, even though it was loud and stood out on a basketball court,\u201d said Myles O\u2019Meally, a former Nike footwear developer who now runs the product design and engineering studio Aret\u00e9.<\/p>\n
The new wave of performance shoes faces an uphill battle to truly break out as fashion footwear, however. Although basketball sneakers have become cultural artifacts for sneakerheads, the most sought-after styles are all retro models. The shoes worn by today\u2019s pro players have long since faded from the conversation when it comes to fashion and casual wear, with sales of the category falling.<\/p>\n
According to the market research firm Circana, basketball shoe sales declined by 5 percent in 2024 and the market was down by 8 percent year-to-date in May 2025. (The category saw growth between 2022 and 2023, albeit only by 1 percent.) Beth Goldstein, Circana\u2019s executive director and industry analyst for footwear and accessories, attributed the decline of basketball sneaker sales to the rise of running footwear that\u2019s seeing strong growth from both performance-focused athletes and casual everyday sneaker wearers. <\/p>\n
\u201cBasketball sneakers don\u2019t tend to make it beyond the court necessarily, despite all the buzz that basketball gets and all of the attention that athletes are now getting for what they wear off-court,\u201d said Goldstein. <\/p>\n
But while sales for basketball sneakers have been sluggish, sneaker enthusiasts, such as content creator Jacques Slade, believe the facelift they\u2019re currently receiving could potentially lead to a pendulum shift.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think people are just going to be wearing basketball shoes all of a sudden. But I do think that they are becoming a more viable option now,\u201d said Slade. <\/p>\n
New Players, New Opportunities<\/p>\n
Slade believes performance basketball sneakers are in a transitional period, with designers beginning to produce designs that also speak to how contemporary basketball culture has embraced fashion in recent years<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost like that first presentation of their performance product is actually in the walk-though to the game rather than the big reveal on the court,\u201d said O\u2019Meally, specifically referring to how Gilgeous-Alexander unveiled new colorways for the Shai 001 during pre-game tunnel walks. \u201cShai\u2019s Converse shoe, the way that the technology has been integrated into that product, it really is quite easy to wear off the court.\u201d <\/p>\n Much of what\u2019s energising a new look for performance basketball shoes today is an emerging generation of basketball stars. Three of the young stars of this year\u2019s NBA season \u2014 Edwards, Gilgeous-Alexander and the Pacers\u2019 Tyrese Haliburton \u2014 all have their own signature shoes and undoubtedly want to mark their arrival with something that looks different.<\/p>\n Drew Haines, merchandising director for the resale marketplace StockX, said that while retro Air Jordan releases and Nike\u2019s signature line for the late Kobe Bryant continue to be the most popular basketball franchises on StockX, new products that are performing well for the category include signature sneakers by emerging WNBA stars such as Sabrina Ionescu. He points out that Caitlin Clark\u2019s take on Nike\u2019s Kobe 5 Proto sneaker, released on Monday, sold out in minutes and is currently being traded for high premiums on StockX.<\/p>\n Along with a new crop of players there\u2019s also a group of emerging sportswear brands. Anta, a Chinese company that just announced it would open its first US flagship in Beverly Hills this September, was the fastest growing sneaker brand on StockX in 2024, fueled by trades of Kyrie Irving\u2019s signature Kai 1 sneaker that debuted in March 2024. Anta and emerging brands like Rigorer and 361 Degrees aren\u2019t only gaining traction by producing signature sneakers with younger talent, such as Austin Reaves, and more established players, such as Nikola Joki\u0107, but also by pushing newness in basketball sneaker design.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have companies that aren\u2019t afraid to experiment and kind of push the limits because they\u2019re trying to break into the market instead of trying to imitate what everybody else is doing,\u201d said Slade. <\/p>\n How Form Meets Function <\/p>\n Even if casual shoppers aren\u2019t rushing out to buy basketball sneakers in droves, the way performance products look still matters. As the basketball market becomes more fragmented, with even brands such as Skechers coming off the bench to launch their own basketball shoes in 2023, design and innovation is what can distinguish basketball sneakers beyond making a signature style with the NBA\u2019s hottest draft pick.<\/p>\n \u201cInnovation is important and these brands need to be developing something new, so they\u2019re building new franchises for newer athletes, particularly in the women\u2019s space, but also taking older ones and continuing to build on them,\u201d said Goldstein of Circana. <\/p>\n At Jordan Brand, homing in on both innovation and heritage is key as it enters its 40th year in business. Mayden said that Micheal Jordan still provides input on his signature sneaker releases and continues to share insights on how basketball players move today. Mayden describes the design process as a combination of timeless narratives, emerging technologies and cultural nuance. And while the latter shapes the aesthetics and marketing around the sneaker, Mayden said it\u2019s not about trading off between style or performance \u2014 though he finds it\u2019s still important to start the design process by building off performance and athlete feedback rather than a look. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have to service how it works before we service how it looks,\u201d said Mayden. \u201cIf you start with an aesthetic, you limit yourself and you potentially back into something that doesn\u2019t serve the athlete\u2019s desired needs.\u201d <\/p>\n In recent years, sportswear brands such as Puma and Adidas have leaned into fashion by onboarding trendy designers such as Salehe Bembury, who created Puma\u2019s Hali 1 for Tyrese Haliburton, and Jerry Lorenzo to design performance basketball footwear. But that struggle between addressing both form and function is one Lorenzo faced when designing fashion-forward performance basketball sneakers for Fear of God\u2019s partnership with Adidas. As reported by Andscape<\/a>, the first sneakers released in 2023, the Fear of God Athletics I, never made it into an NBA game. However, after more performance-focused adjustments were made for its successor, released in December, several NBA players ended up wearing them on court last season. <\/p>\n Even for sneakerheads who casually play basketball such as Slade, a shoe has to do everything to convince them to hit checkout. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s too many options out there for basketball shoes for you to have to play in something uncomfortable,\u201d said Slade. \u201cYou can also get anything within the last 10 years and it\u2019ll perform pretty much on par with anything that\u2019s released today. So it has to be attractive to my eye and it has to be comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Next week, Nike\u2019s Jordan brand will release the Air Jordan 40, the latest model from the iconic basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,7417,28117,74,11409,28116],"class_list":{"0":"post-145893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-celebrity","10":"tag-consumers","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-footwear","13":"tag-streetwear"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114793159452073214","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/6JU5P5E4DFHOFFIPC4AT5X7UBA.jpg\")
The Converse Shai 001. (Nike\/Converse) <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2I53FAGKRNEBZG553NZVOJLOVU.jpeg\")
The Jordan 40 marks the first time Nike\u2019s ever combined its ZoomX and Zoom Strobel technology into a single shoe. (Nike\/Jordan Brand) <\/p>\n