Kanye West’s Yeezy shoe line with adidas is finally making a basketball shoe, and though Yeezys are extremely popular among NBA players you might not see the Yeezy basketball shoe on the court when it finally drops.
That’s because while the NBA’s shoe rules have been loosened for the upcoming season, the Yeezy design we’ve seen still appears to violate the league’s rules on footwear. Last month the NBA announced it would limit color restrictions that shoemakers often had to adhere to at certain points of the season. That meant that players with signature shoes often had to have muted colorways or not do custom designs until different points on the calendar.
That restriction getting lifted was exciting for a number of players who have taken advantage of the moratorium lifting in previous seasons to show off some really unique colorways. But it’s not the color that’s the problem for West’s Yeezys getting on the NBA court.
According to ESPN’s Nick DePaula the problem would be with the reflective heel on the shoes, which violates an NBA rule on shoes that could be distracting.
Kanye West is expected to debut his first-ever Yeezy basketball sneaker on the feet of Adidas athletes during the upcoming NBA season. But the league office would ban the current version of the sneaker on court because of its gleaming, reflective-material heel, according to industry sources.
While the monochromatic sneakers won’t violate the league’s footwear color restrictions, the issue is the reflective “3M” heel panel, which the NBA would find potentially distracting for both in-arena spectators and television viewers.
Here’s an image of the shoes Kanye posted online that, well, illustrates the problem pretty clearly.
It seems like the reflection is a huge selling point for West, as he keeps photographing the prototype pair in low light and letting the heels glow.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoNtGmEFS9R/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
DePaula reported that Christopher Arena, the NBA’s vice president of identity, outfitting and equipment, said companies give the NBA sneaker samples they want players to wear in the seasons’ first half by early August, and post-All-Star break colorways are styles need to be approved by early December.
The NBA has not seen a Yeezy basketball shoe yet, but a source told DePaula that the shoe West showed off online would not get the OK from the league. Whether the final design changes before it actually were to hit the floor is entirely possible. DePaula noted a shoe that Carmelo Anthony had to alter with a matte finish after a similar problem. But the shoe in its current state, while fashionable and very much a basketball shoe, is not exactly court ready right now.
