It’s been a big month for Oklahoma City Thunder superstars getting the latest in their line of signature sneakers. Back on New Year’s Day, Jordan held an event to announce the debut of Russell Westbrook’s latest kicks, the Why Not? Zer0.2. Now, Paul George is using the Thunder’s game against the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night to debut the latest in his line from Nike.
The company announced the PG3 is finally here, with the first colorway paying homage to a NASA building in George’s hometown of Palmdale, Calif. The news came to us via a video that dropped on the Nike Basketball Twitter account, featuring George taking flight with a bunch of references to space exploration.
https://twitter.com/nikebasketball/status/1083531940324495360
Beyond the sneakers, which include an orange and blue design and have a few nods to NASA like an American flag on one tongue and a “REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT” tag, Nike will drop a line of matching apparel.
The PG x NASA Collection.
Drawing inspiration from @NASA’s Armstrong Building 703 in @Yg_Trece’s hometown, Palmdale, CA, the collection honors his mission to one day leave his footprints on the moon.
The apparel arrives starting Jan. 24: https://t.co/qUCznP6RPd #pg3 #nasa #nike pic.twitter.com/EZVcTa0Msf
— Nike Basketball (@nikebasketball) January 11, 2019
According to Nike, the sneakers are lighter than George’s past signature shoes, which is part of the three core principles it wanted to follow when creating the kicks: fit, traction, and weight. George spoke to Bleacher Report about his new sneakers, expressing how happy he was with how the design turned out.
“I thought we killed it,” George said. “These 3s are up there as one of my favorites. I don’t think we went away from a basketball shoe too much, but I do think we highlighted a bunch of areas where you can say that’s a sneaker and not a basketball shoe.”
Along those lines, George said that he wanted to have these shoes be similar to the early Air Jordans in that “they were shoes that fared well not only on the court but off the court.” The kicks will drop on the SNKRS app on Jan. 26, and if you’re interested, they’ll set you back $120.
