The Kicks You Wear, Vol. 385 — Run it back better 🏀

Nike, the NBA and the WNBA are renewing their uniform deal, but things have gotten stale. Here's how we can make them better.

Good morning, family! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate you.

Hope you’ve got a great weekend ahead of you. Quick shoutout to my momma and my baby brother who both have birthdays coming up! Baby bro is turning 21!!! Exciting times. HBD, y’all. Love you.

Alright. Let’s dive in.

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Hitting the reset button

Photo by 鸣轩 冷 on Unsplash

Nike, the NBA and the WNBA joined on Monday to announce a new 12-year extension to their uniform partnership. The deal was announced at a star-studded presentation on Monday, where the brightest luminaries from the basketball world made appearances.

Details: This is a 12-year commitment between Nike, the NBA and the WNBA. The party’s previous deal together was worth $1 billion. This one is reportedly even larger, CNBC reports.

This is a huge commitment in every way. All parties involved have a lot riding on it.

• For Nike: The brand’s focus is shifting back to the athlete and away from influencer-driven fluff.

• For the NBA: The league is getting stale. Good uniforms, alone, won’t save it, but they could certainly go a long way in refreshing the league’s image.

• For the WNBA: The league is at an inflection point. It’s the biggest it’s ever been and has one of the biggest stars in sports, Caitlin Clark.

The big picture: The stakes are too high here not to nail the image for both these leagues over the next few years. The last few seasons have been lackluster, to say the least.

• After getting off to a solid start when things began in 2017, the NBA has oversaturated itself with consistently bland looks year after year. There are occasional hits (like the Miami Heat’s Vice jerseys) but they’re few and far between.

• On the WNBA side, the color variations and team looks aren’t as awful. But some jerseys aren’t available to purchase. There’ve been times when you couldn’t even consistently purchase jerseys for the biggest names in the league.

Five thoughts: There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to make the next 12 years of this partnership a fruitful one. Here are a few things that would work well for the partnership moving forward.

• Less is more: In 2017, the thought of having a different alternate uniform every season for every team was enticing. Today, it’s obvious it’s too much. Relax on the alternates.

  • Maybe rotate teams in and out — 10 teams get an alternate jersey every year, or something like that. Figure out a system that works.

• Make uniforms uniform: Some uniforms don’t match team colors at all. There are games where you have no idea who is at home and on the road. That’s a problem for the viewer. Shift back to light colors at home and dark colors on the road. And, please, keep team colors somewhat consistent. There’s no world in which the Bulls should wear anything other than black and red.

• Know your audience: This has been a huge problem on the WNBA side. Player jerseys sell out so quickly because there just isn’t enough supply. Demand has spiked over the last few years and especially so last year.

• Get team sponsors off of fan jerseys: I did not ask for a CarMax jersey, Washington Mystics. I asked for an Aaliyah Edwards one. The patches are fine in-game. But I’m not paying upwards of $150 to be somebody’s billboard.

• Stop the leaks: I don’t know if there’s anything Nike or the leagues can do about this, considering that this usually happens because random wholesalers sometimes put products out too early. But I genuinely believe that getting glimpses of the new jerseys online before any official imagery is released ruins our perception of what the new jerseys could look like. If you find a way to stop the leaks, you bring the mystique that makes jerseys special in the first place back.

Uniforms are hard to get right these days. Everyone (including myself!) is a critic who knows what makes a good uniform good. It’s impossible to make everyone happy with this stuff.

However, fixing those problems above would make the fan experience more pleasing. If that happens, folks will be far less critical moving forward.

P.S… Hey. Nike. Bring back the Christmas jerseys. We miss that.

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Angel Reese is officially up next

Speaking of announcing new deals, Angel Reese announced a new multi-year extension for her current deal with Reebok on the latest episode of her podcast, Unapologetically Angel.

Yes, a signature shoe is included.

The details: Reese announced that she and the brand have already begun design work on her upcoming signature model, which she called “Reebok by Angel.”

• The shoe isn’t slated to drop until 2025-2026. I’d put my money on 2026.

• She’ll be the first female Reebok athlete to launch a signature model since Rebecca Lobo dropped hers in 1995.

The backdrop: It’s surprising that the process on Reese’s shoe is only just beginning. She told us it was coming earlier this summer at WNBA All-Star weekend, but that may have been a case of her counting all her chickens before they hatch.

But it was always a safe bet that this would come to fruition. Reebok and, specifically, Shaquille O’Neal have invested a ton into her. She’s easily the brand’s biggest, most popular active athlete today. Missing this opportunity would’ve been a major blunder.

The big picture: Don’t look now, but the signature sneaker room in the WNBA is getting pretty crowded.

• Reese is the sixth active WNBA player with a signature shoe deal.

  • The others are Breanna Stewart (Puma), Sabrina Ionescu (Nike), A’ja Wilson (Nike), Caitlin Clark (Nike) and Sydney Colson (Creative Commons).

There’s still plenty of room to grow. But we’re seeing this much movement after just a couple of monster years for women’s basketball between the women’s college basketball and WNBA seasons.

That’s exciting news for the performance hoops category.

One concern: The shoe will be developed as a unisex model. That’s not shocking, considering Reese’s popularity. Reebok wants to expand its reach.

But I think, for a non-lifestyle model, the unisex route might be a mistake. Generally, men and women have very different feet and very different needs when it comes to performance. My concern is that, in trying to serve both well, Reebok ends up serving no one in particular.

That conversation is a bit premature, though. We can go deeper on it when the time comes.

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The Doernbecher collection is here

Nike’s Doernbecher collection is here. This is always one of the year's best moments in sneakers for me. The stories are heartwarming, and it’s cool to see people rally around something like this.

The backdrop: For those out of the loop, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital picks six patients to design custom shoes in partnership with Nike every year. Their designs get auctioned off and sold, with proceeds going to the hospital.

The program has been around since 2004, and according to Nike, the hospital has raised $37 million so far.

A look:

The names:

• Jillian Beagley designed the Air Jordan 6.

• Tima Sviridenko designed the Nike Air Zoom Pegasus 41.

• Ja’Kai Taylor designed the Air Max 180.

• Quin Nims designed the Air Max Sunder.

• Connor Kassing Fernández designed the Air Max DN.

• Sophia Jenkins designed the Sabrina 2.

Another thing: There’s also a special pair of Air Jordan 20s celebrating the 20th anniversary of the program. They’re up for auction at Sotheby’s. I’m too broke for all that, though.

I’ll be taking a strong look at the Sunder and the DN here. But these are all awesome and super creative. Shoutout to these brilliant little designers for putting this together.

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More spicy sneaker wars

Adidas and Nike taking shots at each other will always be entertaining. Adidas ran an AE1 commercial before opening night in the NBA called “No Lie.” He takes a lie detector test and declares himself the “top dog” in the NBA.

This is great. It’s fun. Again, it pokes fun at other brands and other NBA stars out there. But, after the Lakers beat the Timberwolves on opening night, Nike had a swift comeback via Twitter.

Still the King. No lies detected. Crown this tweet, please.

I love this: If you’d have told me Nike and Adidas would be taking overt shots at each other like this five years ago, I’d have laughed in your face. Now that we’re here? Whew, boy. I never want this to stop.

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#TheKicksWeWear

Y’ALL KNOW THE VIBES. LET’S GET IT.

First, the homie Rohan got busy with the Preloved Purple AE1s. These are so smooth.

Then the homie Shawn P came through with the Freddy Air Max 95s. Spooky SZN indeed, my brother.

The homie Craw came through with the City of Cinema Dunks. BEAUTIES. He also got baby girl out here looking fly, too. 🫡

The homie Mark doubled up on us with the Mallard Green 1000s and the Liberty Blue (yes, I’m calling them that!) Kayano 12.1.

The homie JD sent us home with the What the DUCK Dunks that are RIDICULOUSLY fly. Wow. These look awesome on fiit.

Smoked it, gang. Y’all stay cooking. 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡

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That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading. Hope you have a fantastic weekend.

If you’ve got any questions, comments or concerns, feel free to hit me up at mikedsykes@gmail.com or shoot me a message here via Substack.

Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.

-Sykes 💯