NBA
NBA Signature Shoes: 26 Players Have Their Own Sneakers in 2023
Mat Issa is based in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Yes, he spells his name with one "t." He's obsessed with NBA history, so much so that he's dedicated nearly two years of research to his two mini-series', "Blazing the Trail" and "The Quest for the Best." Right now, Mat goes to law school and writes about the NBA for The Analyst, Forbes, and of course, Basketball Insiders. His work has also been featured in ESPN, SB Nation, FanSided, Basketball News, ONE37pm, and Raptors Republic. Also, he's a lifelong Spartans fan. Go Green!
All posts by Mat IssaUpdated16 Nov 2023
According to the good people at Boardroom, this season will see the release of more signature sneakers than ever before. During the 2023-24 season, we will see the release of 26 signature sneakers.
Who Is Getting A Signature Sneaker
The 26 signature sneaker releases will be spread across 11 brands: Nike, Adidas, Jordan, Curry Brand, New Balance, Peak, Li-Ning, 361, New Balance, Anta, Rigorer, and Puma. Here is a breakdown of which athletes have sneakers releasing from each of these brands.
Nike: LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Durant, Ja Morant, and Devin Booker
Adidas: James Harden, Damian Lillard, Donovan Mitchell, Trae Young, Anthony Edwards
Jordan: Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum, Zion Williamson
Anta: Klay Thompson, Gordon Hayward, Kyrie Irving
Puma: LaMelo Ball, Scoot Henderson
361: Aaron Gordon, Spencer Dinwiddie
Li-Ning: CJ McCollum, Jimmy Butler
The other four brands only have one athlete releasing a sneaker this year. The Curry Brand has, of course, Stephen Curry. Rigorer has Austin Reaves. New Balance has Kawhi Leonard. And Peak has Andrew Wiggins.
Of the 26 players we listed, 21 have been named to at least one All-Star team in the past and five have earned league MVP honors.
Who Is Missing From This List?
Going through this list, one can’t help but notice that the two players responsible for the last three league MVPs (and the last Finals MVP) do not have signature sneakers releasing this year. If you couldn’t tell from our hint, those two players are Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic.
Embiid is currently a sneaker free agent. He has been rocking the same signature sneaker that he created back in the 2020-21 season: the Under Armor Embiid 1. Meanwhile, Jokic doesn’t have any signature shoes of his own. However, he does often don the Nike Air Zoom G.T. Jump basketball shoes when he’s out on the court. It is uncertain when/if he will ever have his own signature sneakers.
Some other players who made the All-Star team last year who are not included in this year’s slate of signature shoe releases are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lauri Markkanen, Bam Adebayo, Jaylen Brown, DeMar DeRozan, De’Aaron Fox, Jrue Holiday, Tyrese Haliburton, Domantas Sabonis, Jaren Jackson Jr., Pascal Siakam, and Julius Randle.
