The Kicks You Wear Vol. 432 — Bayou Barbie has arrived
Angel Reese's first signature shoe comes at an important time for Reebok.
Good morning, friends! Welcome back to the Kicks You Wear. Thanks so much for rocking with me today. Appreciate you giving me a bit of your time.
Guys! Exciting news! I’m working on my first reported story for The Business of Fashion. Yes, already! I have officially joined the company and have hit the ground running.
This particular piece will explore the deflation of the secondary sneaker market over the last few years for The Business of Fashion. I’d love to hear from some of you about the current state of play! If you’re interested in chatting with me, feel free to respond to this email or shoot me a message here via Substack.
With that out of the way, let’s jump into things.
Angel Reese’s signature shoe is here
A year ago, Angel Reese confirmed to the media during WNBA All-Star weekend that she did, indeed, have a signature shoe on the way with Reebok.
Fast forward: Today, that shoe has finally arrived. The Angel Reese 1 has officially been unveiled.
Reebok gave us a look via Instagram on Wednesday.
The backdrop: Reese is officially the 11th signature athlete in Reebok’s history.
She follows in the footsteps of basketball royalty like current Reebok hoops president Shaquille O’Neal, his vice president Allen Iverson, and former WNBA star Rebecca Lobo.
Reese is Reebok’s first signature basketball athlete since former Washington Wizards star John Wall left the brand for Adidas back in 2012.
The state of play: A lot hinges on Reese’s signature success for Reebok. The brand has been recharting its course in performance basketball after being acquired by Authentic Brands Group in 2021. ABG’s typical strategy is to buy brands that are struggling and license them out as much as possible to squeeze out whatever juice they may have left. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it goes belly-up like it did with Forever 21.
With Reebok, though, the company seems to truly be aiming for a revival. The brand has gone all-in, hiring two of its former stars to run the basketball division. It’s also picked up athletes with upside, like WNBA star Dijonai Carrington and NBA up-and-comer Matas Buzelis. The brand launched the Engine A mainline model in January.
But one might argue Reebok’s timing here is a bit off. As my colleague, Lei Takanashi, wrote for The Business of Fashion last week, basketball shoe sales declined by five percent in 2024 and were down by eight percent in May 2025, per data from market research firm Circana.
Yes, but: It’s hard to argue that signature basketball isn’t having a moment. The AE 1 was named Sneaker of the Year in 2024. A’ja Wilson’s A’One sells out like hotcakes. Nike just did an entire basketball showcase on its SNKRS app.
Nothing leaves a lasting impression in the marketplace like a hot signature model. That’s a golden ticket. A good signature model could potentially have a halo effect on the rest of the brand. That’s what Reebok is hoping for with Reese’s signature shoe.
That’s why the brand is putting on the full-court press with its marketing of the sneaker.
Angel Reese is on the cover of NBA 2K26, and she’s sporting her signature shoe.
She’s also already debuted the shoe on the court, wearing it in the Chicago Sky’s game against the Dallas Wings.
The impact: Reese isn’t the best player among the signature shoe class in the WNBA — that honor belongs to A’ja Wilson. But she is undoubtedly the most popular. She has 5 million followers on Instagram — 1.5 million more than Caitlin Clark. Followers don’t necessarily translate into sales, but they’re certainly a good investment indicator.
Reebok is in a good spot here. It’s up to the brand to make the most of it. Reese is certainly doing her part now.
Change is coming at Converse
In a bit of a surprising turn of events, Converse has a new CEO.
What’s happening: Longtime Nike veteran Aaron Cain is taking over as the lead executive at the brand following Jared Carver, who is out after just over two years on the job at Converse. The news was first reported by Bloomberg on Thursday.
Background: Cain has spent the last 21 years at Nike working in various roles. Most recently, he worked as the global vice president and general manager of Nike’s men’s division.
He worked, specifically, with Nike’s basketball division and has experience with the brand’s signature athletes, according to his LinkedIn page.
He also worked on Nike’s soccer cleat business.
By the numbers: Cain has a lot of work ahead of him. This major shift for Converse comes at a time when, like Nike overall, the brand is struggling quite a bit.
Converse’s reported fourth quarter sales numbers were $357 million, which is a 26 percent drop.
Its overall sales for the year were $1.7 billion, which is a 19 percent dip year over year.
Yes, but: Even being aware of how bad those numbers are, this move was quite the surprise to me. Converse has a lot of things going for it right now, from Tyler, the Creator’s success with some of the brand’s archival models to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s upcoming signature basketball sneaker to Louie Lopez’s skate sneakers. The brand even has its own variation of a weird loafer that, honestly, doesn’t look all that weird!
I’ve rambled on a bit here, but the point is that there’s some interesting stuff going on at Converse. And, with consumers seemingly more willing to try new things, the brand seemed to be in a solid position moving forward.
The big picture: Cain’s ascent and Carver’s departure might be a bit surprising, but they’re also part of what seems to be a C-suite shuffle for Nike and all of its brands thanks to what the brand calls its “Win Now” action plan.
In just the last few months:
Amy Montagne rose from the GM of Nike’s global women’s division to the president of the company.
Tom Clarke became the company’s chief growth initiatives officer after working as a strategic advisor.
Nicole Graham has added executive vice president to her title as chief marketing officer and is working across Nike, Jordan, and Converse.
Phil McCartney is now the executive vice president of chief innovation, design and product after formerly being the vice president of footwear.
While those four ascended up Nike’s ranks, former company executive Heidi O’Neil exited her job as president of consumer, product and brand.
When a new executive takes over a company, they often place the people they trust the most in key roles around them. From the outside looking in, this seems to be what Nike CEO Elliott Hill is doing.
40 in style
The biggest knock on the most recent Air Jordan models is that, while they typically seem to perform well on the court, they haven’t necessarily been the most — uh, let’s say — appealing for casual wear.
Yes, but it feels like the Jordan 40 might be shifting the paradigm? Here’s MLB star Jazz Chisholm wearing a pair in the tunnel.
My take: These are clean. They do give me Adidas x Fear of God vibes with their simplicity, but I don’t mind seeing a dash of minimalism from the Air Jordan line. It’s a nice change of pace from the designs we’ve become accustomed to over the last decade.
The question: This shoe looks fly here. But is it fly enough to reinvigorate folks into believing that the OG Air Jordan line is cool again? I’m not sure. Time will deliver those answers to us — maybe with the help of a few other colorways here and there.
But this certainly feels like a step in the right direction.
Restoring the feeling
It truly is the year of the Air Max 95 because the Levi’s pairs that dropped on Thursday had some of y’all outside going wild.
Take a look: Here’s the line for the Nike x Levi’s in-store release over at the Levis store in NYC. This is wild!
There aren’t many shoes that would have me standing in a line like this. I like these Air Maxes, but this certainly isn’t one of those pairs. Looks like that’s an unpopular opinion!
The big picture: The Air Max 95 seems…back? Between this drop and the Corteiz Honey Black 95 joint from earlier this year in Harlem, these are arguably the two most hyped sneaker releases of the year.
Good for Nike. They’ve got something cooking here.
#TheKicksWeWear
LET’S GET IT!
The homie Rube brought out the kiddo and they gave us a show with their Vans. So fly.
The homie JD popped out with the AJ 23s and the Steet Hawker SBs this week. I’m so eternally jealous of this man.
The homie Rick Dubb came through fresh with the Geiger 004s in a neon green colorway. What a sneaker, man. Shoutout to Geiger. He deserves more love for these.
The homie Kyle came through in these SWEET Moncler joints. Wow, these rock. What a shoe.
Then the homie Lean Joe Greene took us home with the Supreme Gatos. What a sleeper! The streets are saying Gatos are back now. Y’all better get hip to these.
SMOKED it. Thanks, gang.
Thanks so much for rocking with me today, folks. I appreciate you. Hope you have a fantastic weekend.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, feel free to hit me up via email at mikedsykes@gmail.com or shoot me a message here via Substack.
Peace and love. Be safe, be easy, be kind. We out.
-Sykes 💯