Once I heard SLAM was turning 30 this 12 months — man, first off, I felt outdated as hell — however in fact, I used to be additionally hyped.
Ever since I can bear in mind enjoying the sport, watching the sport, loving the sport — SLAM Journal has been proper there. I’ve been wearing a rubber band ever since that first KICKS issue.
It was the muse. The blueprint. The tradition. All alongside. For each basketball and sneakers. For the final thirty years, and nevertheless a few years it runs from right here…
I knew I may additionally contribute to the anniversary in a novel approach.
To have a good time the influence of SLAM and its thirtieth anniversary, we’ve partnered with footwear manufacturers throughout the trade. We’re trying again at a number of the most iconic covers and gamers over the past 30 years, to inform the story of SLAM’s influence on the basketball world, all via some hearth collaborative sneakers.
My favourite half about SLAM is the chapters. The eras. The best way that the journal and the platform meant various things to completely different folks alongside the best way — every decade — however all the time made an influence and left its mark.
Tonight in New York, we’ll be previewing a few of our upcoming SLAM thirtieth Anniversary footwear to come back on the journal’s 30 YEARS OF SLAM occasion, with a runway spanning all through your complete remainder of 2024 of extra warmth on the best way. Right here’s an early take a look at what to anticipate all 12 months lengthy.
SLAM x LEBRON x NIKE
By the point the already-dubbed “King James” appeared on the quilt of SLAM #78 on the halfway level of his rookie season, essentially the most hyped prospect in league historical past was already assembly, and even exceeding the hype.
“It’s solely the start,” learn the quilt textual content.
He was lacing up his first signature shoe, the Air Zoom Technology, all through his historic 20.5.5 rookie 12 months. It wasn’t simply the league that had stamped him as the long run, however Nike coined him “generational” off high with a record-setting $90 Million rookie shoe deal.
The historical past between SLAM and Bron is lengthy stamped. The textual content behind the tongue of the SLAM x Air Zoom Technology is up to date from the quilt and says as a lot: “Since The Starting…”
Flipping the hues of his first footwear, a wealthy pink suede takes on the bottom shade, whereas a sequence of design particulars celebrating his debut signature all come to life. There’s a nod to his first PE, the “Laser” Generations worn on Christmas Day, which was additionally the primary lasered hoop shoe to hit the NBA hardwood. An in depth lasered graphic highlighting the SLAM brand and James’ upbringing tells the story additional.
For the primary time, there’s a collar Swoosh placement, simply as Aaron Cooper initially designed them. The molded components on the shoe that drafted off of his much-discussed Hummer H2 are all chrome to honor his 18th birthday reward. We’re solely simply getting began with this one.
***
SLAM x AND1
When SLAM #41 dropped in April of 2000, we had simply witnessed maybe the best Dunk Contest efficiency of all time. Vince Carter was famously a sneaker free agent in simply his second season, and he laced up the white and pink AND1 Tai Chi for that prompt basic array of dunks.
AND1 had been round for a number of years as a rising attire firm by that time and their transcendent streetball Mixtapes had been shifting main, however now, their footwear was taking off too. VC laced up a easy black and white pair of the Tai Chi on the very subsequent cowl slot that was accessible. The header was simple:
“The Biggest Present On Earth”
To have a good time the 2000s period of AND1 and the influence of the Tai Chi on sneaker tradition, we’re creating a brand new model that brings to life SLAM’s heritage colours of white, gray, black and orange, fittingly the precise shades from that cowl shot of Concern 41.
The mesh fade is a nod to a different mannequin from the period that I all the time liked, the Finger Roll, and a technique to carry the Tai Chi’s authentic yin and yang impressed break up learn to the facet of the shoe. As all the time, the shoe appears greatest with a suede shade alongside the within panel — a vibrant orange suede is seen on the SLAM version.
Our thirtieth anniversary crest might be seen alongside the internal collar, together with the three vertical stars discovered on the quilt textual content. The 3M hits all through tie again to the brilliant lights of All-Star Weekend, and the influence of The Biggest Present On Earth all these years later.
***
SLAM x CURRY BRAND
Stephen Curry had simply signed with Beneath Armour a number of months earlier than he was on his first cowl of SLAM in December of 2013. And man, what a run he’s had within the decade since. He’s now the President of Curry Model, his personal rattling model inside the Beneath Armour umbrella.
On the unique cowl, he’s sporting the Anatomix Spawn, a sneaker that marked a brand new period of design for UA, and the primary mannequin he wore with the model to start out the 2013-2014 season.
The actual story is the shoe that Stephen wore for the quilt shoot was a mixture of blue, purple and teal. In a full circle second I couldn’t have imagined, I really photoshopped the unique image, shifting the purple midsole to royal blue, and the teal collar to a Warriors-matching yellow. This was lengthy earlier than the league let go of their shade guidelines, in fact.
A decade later, and Curry Model has lately launched the Anatomix Spawn via its Flotro filter, remixing the corporate’s revolutionary Circulate midsole with a modernized model of the unique higher.
Whereas SLAM #173 was simply the start line of Curry as cowl man, the SLAM x Spawn Flotro celebrates the entire covers that the 4-time champ has appeared on within the years since.
The design incorporates a collage of his covers throughout your complete higher, with torn edges impressed by everybody’s childhood ritual of tearing out the pages of SLAM to tack up on their bed room partitions.
The idea can be a nod to the generational influence that Curry has had on the sport, inspiring younger readers and gamers all over the world to reimagine how they strategy the sport, lengthen their taking pictures vary, and expertise the enjoyment of hoops.
The heel grasp tag options the SLAM brand, whereas a pearlized midsole references the widespread thirtieth anniversary stone. The lace ideas are a nod to each the milestone and Curry’s iconic jersey quantity, merely studying “THIRTY.”
Keep tuned for extra on the complete SLAM x Curry Model pack to come back. We’ve obtained one other mannequin on the best way, too…
***
SLAM x SABRINA x NIKE
A 12 months after being chosen #1 general within the WNBA draft, SLAM stamped Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu as “The Subsequent Queen of NY” for the magazine’s Future Concern.
The next 12 months, Sabrina was launching her very personal signature shoe with Nike, taking her starpower and influence on the sport to one more stage. An All-Star and All-WNBA PG in every of the final two seasons, the 3-Level Contest document setter will as soon as once more be working level this season for a loaded Liberty squad that reached the WNBA Finals final 12 months.
The expectations are rightfully excessive but once more as Sabrina enters her fifth season. There’s additionally equally excessive expectations for her follow-up signature shoe, the Nike Sabrina 2.
After her debut signature mannequin broke boundaries and noticed adoption in any respect ranges of the sport, inspiring “anybody, anyplace,” the momentum round her second sneaker makes it one of many anticipated fashions of your complete 12 months.
We will’t wait to share how SLAM x Sabrina involves life in New York later this 12 months.
***
SLAM x LAMELO x PUMA
Since he was a young person, LaMelo Ball has been SLAM Fam. He was doing full-scale photoshoots all through his highschool run at Chino Hills, together with his starpower and basketball journey taking him across the globe ever since.
After his Rookie of the Yr begin within the league, the face of Puma Hoops noticed the launch of his first signature shoe coincide together with his first All-Star Recreation look throughout his sophomore season. It was on Concern #237 that he pulled up for the quilt of SLAM in his unlaced MB.01s, hitting the league’s longtime brand pose in a customized LaFrancé jersey from his personal clothes line.
With an iced out, 3D UFO pendant on his neck, the quilt declared him “Out Of This World.”
With extra to come back later this 12 months, search for SLAM and LaMelo to carry to life his “uncommon” and “1 of 1” character within the loudest approach doable, as we group up with Puma to have a good time Ball’s influence on the sneaker trade and his place in the way forward for each the sport and SLAM’s subsequent chapter forward.
***
SLAM x PENNY x NIKE
As we regarded again via the a long time of SLAM covers through the years, we additionally regarded on the numerous milestone points because the very first cowl went to print in ’94.
The thirtieth situation of SLAM featured none apart from Penny Hardaway, with a Scoop Jackson-penned cowl story that completely captured his quick rise with the Orlando Magic and his mission to remain on high of the sport that he poured the whole lot into.
Round that very same time within the late ’90s, Nike had simply unveiled certainly one of their most revolutionary sneakers ever with Penny because the headliner. The Foamposite One has been one of the vital distinctive and iconic sneakers throughout the trade ever since, with its molded higher and clear backside making for an unmistakable look and a world following.
The SLAM x Penny Foamposite takes it again to one of many earliest sketches from designer Eric Avar, who in some way noticed the long run when first crafting the shoe within the mid-90s. The molded Foamposite higher discovered right here incorporates a printed graphic impressed by Avar’s idea sketch, with the main points dialed in from there.
For the primary time, there’s a Swoosh alongside the shank, simply as Avar had sketched it. The tongue logos alternate between Hardaway’s smooth 1 Cent brand and the SLAM brand. The heel tabs characteristic the three vertical stars discovered on each cowl all through the journal’s 30 years, and a quantity 30 that additionally honors SLAM’s thirtieth Concern.
***
SLAM x ADIDAS
If you ask anybody to choose their favourite cowl of SLAM, it’s the fifteenth situation that includes a fold-out cowl of rising rookies “set to explode” that rapidly involves thoughts for a lot of. One of many deepest Draft courses ever posed in entrance of a brick wall, and SLAM was proper there in 1996 to stamp the gathering of future Corridor of Famers as subsequent up.
In partnering with Adidas, we’ll be bringing to life one of many model’s most forward-thinking designs in firm historical past. Sure, which means the Loopy Two is retroing sooner or later, for the primary time.
With a molded silhouette drafting from the automotive trade, the sneaker was each bit as boundary pushing because it was polarizing when it initially launched.
You’ll be seeing the outsized proportions of the sneaker come to life in a wholly new approach later this 12 months, as SLAM appears again to the shades discovered alongside the basic “Prepared Or Not…” cowl from the earliest days of the journal.
***
SLAM x BUBBA CHUCK x REEBOK
You already know this was a should.
As Allen Iverson writes within the foreword of the “30 YEARS OF SLAM” book:
“I’m SLAM.”
The bond and timeline of the 2 have been linked ever since Iverson was first featured on the quilt, whereas nonetheless in faculty. When Concern #32 dropped although, the influence reached past basketball.
It’s not simply an iconic SLAM cowl. It’s a picture that kickstarted a complete throwback jersey period for the 2000s, and cemented AI as essentially the most culturally impactful icon that the league has ever seen.
All through the detailed Russ Bengtson characteristic interview with The Reply, there’s a structure graphic that includes Iverson that’s centered round “The three of Diamonds.”
As everyone knows, there isn’t a lot rationalization wanted to elucidate Allen’s affinity for ice.
The throwback “PHILA” jersey he’s sporting was customized made by a neighborhood close by producer named Mitchell & Ness, to spotlight the historical past of the league in an “Previous Faculty Concern” because the NBA was coping with a lockout that 12 months. It was the chains, the tats, the watch and the earrings that allow you to know this was nonetheless a contemporary icon of the following millennium.
Impressed by “frosted” diamond watches, the midsole of the SLAM x Reebok Query Low incorporates a metallic frosted texture that extends up into the shoe’s iconic toe cap. The SLAM brand seems on the heel, whereas the lettering up the eyelets have been switched out to learn Allen’s longtime nickname amongst his closest associates, “Bubba Chuck.”
The “3 of Diamonds” brand from the unique cowl story structure hits off each the heel of the shoe and the outsole via a transparent outsole, bringing one of the vital impactful covers in SLAM’s 30-year historical past full circle, celebrating as soon as once more that “Allen Iverson is Soul On Ice.”
***
