Magic slippers
Have you seen what they’re wearing on the basketball court these days?
My husband is watching the March Madness college basketball tournament for the gameplay.
I am watching for the shoes.
Wild patterns, neon bright colors — sometimes a different color for each foot. Basketball shoes are fantabulous fashion.
My husband, a self-styled “uniform czar,” hates this. “Shoes should be in team colors,” he grumps.
Obviously he did not notice the Nikes worn by Justin Abson of the University of Georgia, which were pink, purple and turquoise with hearts and smiley faces on the soles, and a happy pickle on top. The shoe is from Nike’s Doernbecher line, the result of a longstanding collaboration with Oregon Health & Science University’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, in which patients get to design shoes. Who could resist such cuteness?
This year I’ve seen basketball shoes with leopard-print patterns, snakeskin patterns and spider-web patterns (those would be on the back of BYU star A.J. Dybansta’s custom “Spider-Man” shoes).
There are shoes in every shade, with names like University Red, Safety Orange, Sonic Yellow, Stadium Green, International Blue, Purple Dynasty, Think Pink, Coconut Milk and Masked Menace (aka black, an homage to that time LeBron James wore a black carbon-fiber mask to protect his broken nose).
Wear the rainbow.
How did we get from white tennis shoes to here?
1892: U.S. Rubber invents a rubber-soled athletic shoe. Rubber-soled shoes become known as “sneakers,” because they’re quiet and good for sneaking up on people.
1917: Converse rolls out its All-Star shoes. After convincing high-school basketball phenom Chuck Taylor to endorse them, sales take off. Taylor’s signature was added to the ankle patch in 1932. Chucks are still one of the best-selling shoes of all time.
1970s: Sneakers are embraced by hip-hop culture and fashionistas, and “sneakerheads” begin to collect shoes. Manufacturers respond by making rare sneakers that command high prices.
1975: Fans of the TV cop show Starsky and Hutch come out in hordes to buy the sneakers worn on the show by actor Paul Michael Glaser: the Adidas SL-72 in bright blue with white stripes. I am in this age demographic, and yes, I had a pair of Starsky shoes.
1985: Nike debuts the Air Jordan, perhaps the most famous sneaker in history. Michael Jordan’s first signature shoe broke an NBA uniform policy that required basketball shoes to be 51 percent white. The Air Jordan I was only 23 percent white. Nike paid the fines for breaking the rule — $5,000 a game — but sold $150 million worth of shoes. Nike kept releasing new versions of the shoe; they’re now up to Air Jordan 40, which was released in 2025.
1992: Robert Redford stars in a movie called Sneakers, but it’s not about shoes. It’s about hackers.
2018: The NBA changes a rule requiring players to wear shoes only in black, white, gray or team colors. Players can now wear any color sneakers they want.
And that leads us to today, when Purdue’s Braden Smith could be seen playing in the NCAA men’s tournament wearing a pair of Nikes covered in Swarovski crystals.
I hate to admit it, but I’m at the age where I need to wear sensible shoes. A pair of athletic shoes covered in sparklies could be a game-changer for my personal fashion.
Oh wait, the crystal Nikes start at $339.
Maybe I can just bedazzle my New Balances
.