What They’re Wearing – Sixers Sneaker Report
The 76ers have a long history of famous players wearing iconic sneakers. Dr. J was the marquee player to wear Converse prior to Bird and Magic coming into the league. Charles Barkley was the face of the Nike Force line in the late 1980’s. Iverson WAS Reebok (and still is to a lot of people). Fun fact – on the 1996-97 Sixers, not only did Iverson introduce his famous Reebok Questions, but Jerry Stackhouse had his own Fila signature sneakers. He was the brand’s second banana behind Grant Hill.
The current rendition of the 76ers has two (fingers crossed for a third) current and future All-NBA level players. I, for one, am hopeful that there will be another player in the near future to have his own signature sneakers for me to buy for my kids.
Before the season starts, here is a brief rundown of the sneaker brands being repped by your 2018-19 Philadelphia 76ers.
Joel Embiid
Embiid had been an Adidas athlete. Both Embiid’s AAU team – Florida Elite – and his college – Kansas – have major ties to Adidas. Now I’m not saying Embiid did anything wrong, but it’s not very hard to draw some conclusions to why he chose Adidas based on these facts.
All that said, he is a sneaker free agent as of September 30. He’s been wearing Under Armour HOVR Havoc Mid in workouts and pre-season games, so all indications point to him signing a contract shortly. He would vault to the top-tier of UA athletes. Big men notoriously have a tough time selling sneakers, so it remains to be seen whether he would be graced with his own signatures.
I personally am not a huge fan of UA’s shoes, but at the end of the day, the only thing I care about is Embiid staying healthy. With his history of leg problems and his size, it is a near certainty that he wears custom orthotics anyway. He could wear a pair of Sketchers on the court and be fine.
Ben Simmons
Simmons has worn Nike Hyperdunk 2017 since the beginning of last season. He doesn’t seem to be particularly flashy, so I don’t anticipate him going wild with the new relaxed sneaker color restrictions. He did rock a custom pair created by Philly sneaker store Ubiq for a game in late March last season, but if my memory serves me correctly, he changed out of them at half time.
In regards to a future signature sneaker with Nike, I have some thoughts. Nike is top heavy with signature sneakers right now. LeBron, KD, Paul George, and Kyrie all have successful lines. The Greek Freak 1s are scheduled to release at some point during the season.
Simmons has a close relationship with LeBron and is represented by Rich Paul and Klutch Sports. My feeling on this is that in the near future Simmons will be the premier player under LeBron’s Nike brand similar to CP3 and Westbrook (and half of the bums on the Hornets) with Jordan Brand. LeBron is a forward thinking guy, and though I have absolutely zero information on this, I think that he sees Simmons as a player who could carry his brand into the future. Simmons could have his own signature sneaker under the LeBron flag. I think it would be a win for all parties involved.
Other Notes
- Markelle Fultz has worn LeBron sneakers since entering the league. He’s currently wearing the LeBron 16.
- First round pick Zhaire Smith is one of the first athletes on the re-launched Puma basketball brand. Unfortunately, he might not see the court this year. On the other hand, by the time he’s back, Puma will likely have all of the kinks worked out of the Clyde Court Disrupt (see – Ayton, Deandre)
- Demetrious Jackson is the only player on the team (other than potentially Embiid shortly) who reps Under Armour. Mysteriously, he went to Notre Dame, which is a UA school.
- Here is a breakdown of the rest of the roster
Nike – Jonah Bolden, Anthony Brown, Wilson Chandler, Robert Covington, Amir Johnson, Furkan Korkmaz, TJ McConnell, Shake Milton, Mike Muscala, Emeka Okafor, Norvel Pelle, Dario Šarić, and Landry Shamet
Adidas – Jerryd Bayless and JJ Redick
The plan going forward is to do a weekly (or more often) breakdown of the sneaker and aesthetic happenings during the Sixers’ season. Obviously they’ll be introducing two new uniforms (I’m working on some inside information on those – confirmed one will be dark gray and the other will be white). The red Sixers uniform and script Phila jerseys will be going away this season (though they did wear the reds in China vs the Mavs – maybe they’ll be auctioning off since they won’t need them anymore). Also, with the loosened sneaker restrictions, I’m sure some of our guys and opponents will be wearing something worth commenting on. Stay tuned.
