The NBA is rife with sneaker-heads. The time and effort and money that some players put into building up a shoe collection is both mind-boggling and impressive. Some guys have entire wings of their homes devoted to such an endeavor. So you’d think with that attention to detail most players would know what size shoe their supposed to be wearing.
That apparently was not the case for poor Paul George. Later this year, Nike will debut George’s first signature shoe, the Nike PG1, and during the design process, the shoe company discovered that the Pacers superstar has been wearing the wrong size shoes for some time now. Via Brendan Dunne of Sole Collector:
According to sneaker designer Tony Hardman, who worked with him on the model, George was wearing a size 13 despite being a true 14.
“One thing we learned about him was that he was wearing a shoe that was a size too small for years,” Hardman tells Sole Collector. “He was smashing his toes, and it was hurting.”
After measuring his foot at the Nike Sports Research Lab at the brand’s world headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, the design team tried to persuade him to go a full size up, but George stopped at a 13.5. The snug fit he prefers informed his new signature model, which has a strap that allows for a locked-down feel.
If the wrong-size shoes were in any way impeding his performance on the court, we shudder to think just how much more potential he has left to unlock. The bad news is that George should probably throw out all of his old sneakers and start anew. The good news is that, with his new deal with Nike, he’ll never have to worry about buying shoes again.
