Renaissance. And no, we’re not speaking about Beyonce’s impeccable dance hall-inspired album from 2022. We’re speaking concerning the WNBA. Established legends, up-and-coming stars and rookies with rockstar followings. This season has introduced a complete new degree of intrigue—although the true ones know this League has all the time been crammed with hype since its inception in ‘96.
The sport is rising at an distinctive charge and sneaker manufacturers like Nike and Jordan Model have actually taken be aware. Athlete rosters have quickly expanded and multi-million greenback endorsement offers have been reached. The women are actually the primary to debut premier basketball silhouettes like Jordan NIL athlete and UCLA level guard Kiki Rice, who unveiled the Air Jordan 38 in the course of the 2022 Candy Sixteen. Signature sneakers have returned, with Sabrina Ionescu changing into the eighth girls’s signature athlete within the model’s historical past, and thirtieth all-time.
Simply this month, A’ja Wilson and Nike revealed that they’ve been engaged on her first signature –the A’One–for the previous yr, making her the primary Black girls to have a signature with the model because the Nike Air Swoopes I.
As we have a good time the beginning of the 2024 WNBA season, let’s take a collective journey again by way of the Nike archives and have a good time the pioneers of at the moment, and yesterday, who laid out the blueprint.