Adidas Basketball has enjoyed a renaissance over the last five years with consistently great basketball footwear releases. Dark days fell upon Adidas between the Tracey McGrady era of the early/mid 2000’s and the rise of Derrick Rose in 2010. Uninspired silhouettes on the feet Tim Duncan, Chauncey Billups and Gilbert Arenas were commercial misses (with cult followings). Adidas’s designs looked extremely rigid and with aging technology (when compared to competitors) their shoes couldn’t hang with the likes of Nike.
Adidas Basketball historically creates their greatest footwear by taking chances on athletes with star potential. When Adidas signed a young Kobe Bryant they were banking on the youngin’s ability to become something great (people forget Kobe started his career coming off the bench). Their risk resulted in some of their most iconic footwear in The Kobe and Kobe II and it’s all due to the brand’s ability to market young budding talent. Outside of a championship McGrady’s signature line story plays out much like Bryant’s – sign young talent, watch talent captivate audiences, then release great shoes.
Why are we reminiscing about Kobe and T-Mac? Because we want to shine the spotlight on three up-and-coming Adidas athletes that should get a signature shoe. These three ballers have displayed great potential, generated hype and have strong overall marketability. So we ask, who do you think ‘got next’ in the signature game?