Now in his seventh season in the league, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has established himself as not only one of the NBA’s best point guards, but is one of the game’s elite players overall. He is in a two-man race for MVP this season with Nikola Jokic and is on pace to average more than 30 points per game for the third consecutive season.
He is the leader of the best team in the West at the All-Star break, as the Oklahoma City Thunder are 44-10 on the season, tied with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the best record in the league. The 26-year-old Canadian will play in his third All-Star Game this weekend, and as All-Star Weekend got started, he and Converse unveiled his first signature sneaker: the SHAI 001.
Gilgeous-Alexander has been considered one of the most fashionable NBA stars, so it’s fitting that he would go in a unique direction with his first signature shoe. It is a welcome sight to have something this fresh in terms of design in a sneaker world that has become a lot of variations on the same thing. For Gilgeous-Alexander, it was important to create a shoe that would be not just an on-court performance sneaker, but something that could appeal to people who don’t play basketball at all.
“I poured my heart and soul into the SHAI 001, and I’m proud to share it with the world,” says Gilgeous-Alexander in a release. “From performance to design, every aspect of this shoe reflects my passion for the game and my commitment to pushing its boundaries. We made the SHAI 001 a versatile shoe for everyone — from the athlete who’s in the gym three times a day to the kids who just want to express themselves on or off the court.”
“I hope my signature sneaker can inspire everybody to explore the beauty in being different,” Gilgeous-Alexander told Nick DePaula. “I miss the era of when signature basketball sneakers were performative enough to be played in, but fashionable enough to be worn. I want to restore that feeling.”
It’s been awhile since we had a signature sneaker with a full zipper over the laces — Paul George’s PG4 is the last one I remember — but the SHAI 001 harkens back more to the Answer IV. Even then, its design on the upper as the aesthetics of a luxury sneaker, fitting into Shai’s desire to have it be wearable off the court as much as on it. From a performance perspective, the upper is a bootie construction (under the outer zipper layer) to provide containment, while there is a Zoom Air unit in the forefoot for extra cushioning and bounce.
Gilgeous-Alexander will debut the SHAI 001 on-court at All-Star Weekend in the Butter colorway, and the sneaker will hit select retailers this fall.
