On April 23rd, Zion Williamson officially will become the first Generation Z athlete to get a signature sneaker with Nike. Williamson, who is just 20-years-old, signed with Nike’s Jordan Brand following his exodus from Duke nearly two full years ago. He debuts them on April 20th against the Brooklyn Nets.
Williamson has been a legend for a while now. He had millions of followers watching his Instagram highlights in high school. Simple artwork of him in a Spartanburg Day School jersey had hundreds of thousands of likes years ago. Drake was seen in that same red high school jersey in January of 2017 when Williamson was just a junior in high school.
Zion Williamson, and the hype surrounding him, have been anything but normal for several years. Why would he have a normal timeline ahead of a sneaker release? On Tuesday, the story of Williamson’s sneakers, and the official colorways, dropped.
The Kicks
The sneaker itself features a large Z-shaped design that separates the upper half from the lower half of the sneaker and the front half from the back half. The “Z” slashes through the side of the shoe the same way the Nike Swoosh does in a Jordan 1 or Air Force 1. That’s fitting, as this sneaker is called The Zion 1.
Nick DePaula and Taylor Rook both shared the inside scoop on the various colorways. While two of them are innocuous (Gen Zion is black and white, ZNA has a galaxy themed colorway). The other two (Noah and Marion) have deep intention and value to Williamson.
The Jordan Zion 1 was designed by Vianney de Montgolfier, and includes an overt ‘Z’ graphic along the upper, a zonal padded tongue & support bands, with a full-length air unit atop forefoot Zoom Air. pic.twitter.com/AUndv9HAke
— Nick DePaula (@NickDePaula) April 20, 2021
Noah is Williamson’s younger brother. On Their first trip to the Nike Campus, the Nike team handed Noah a blank pair of Jordan 1 sneakers to color. He randomly scribbled all over them… which inspired the Noah colorway. Williamson says there will be a “Noah” colorway in every drop of Zion sneakers he makes. To an extent, the Zion logo is its own scribble as well.
Marion is the name of his hometown in South Carolina. In Marion, Williamson played for Johnakin Middle School and was coached by his own mother. Williamson credit’s the tough coaching for his learned worth ethic, often calling them the hardest practices he ever had. The Marion colorway features a maroon “Z,” as it is one of Johnakin’s school colors. The pink sole represents a lotus flower, rising from the flooded muddy plains. The Marion colorway could also become a staple in the Zion line. Williamson himself said it was the most important
The Impact
Zion Williamson seeks to become one of the rare Jordan Brand athletes to have a successful signature line of sneakers. It’s not that Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and others haven’t had successful models but on none of them had a collection that didn’t live up to the LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, or Kyrie Irving lines of their Nike counterparts. Each of the aforementioned Nike athletes have sneakers that sell out fast. Jordan Brand makes fashionable sneakers that break the internet, with styles like the Air Jordan 1 selling for double on sneaker resale markets like StockX, but they’re always Jordan’s tied to Michael Jordan himself.
Zion’s impact is in more than just sales. He is the first child of the 21st century selling basketball sneakers to his peers. Things that he thinks are important, like the Noah colorway, will carry weight with Jordan Brand. Williamson’s different personas will continue to shine through. In one arena, Williamson is a typical dorky 20-year-old that likes superheroes.
There’s no doubt that Batman will make its way into a Zion line at some point, much like how Bruce Lee references made their way into Kobe Bryant’s sneakers. On the other, Williamson is a once-in-a-generation type of athlete. Moments in his developing career will be highlighted in his kicks much like Michael Jordan’s “The Flu Game” XII’s. In both cases, Williamson is the nice guy who designs shoes with his brother in mind and paid Smoothie King Center employees salaries at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What’s So Crazy?
What Jordan Brand does with Zion Williamson will be telling. Luka Doncic has international appeal, is a Jordan Brand athlete, and is a year older. But Zion has the signature sneaker.
Williamson has only played 24 games last year and 54 games this year (as of the time of the sneaker announcement). For reference to how little that is- in Major League Baseball, with so few games in his Rookie season, Williamson would be eligible for Rookie of the Year this year. He’s excelled in his shift to Point-Forward under head coach Stan Van Gundy but his basketball ceiling is still unknown. Does this season, an All-Star, become the floor?
Whatever the floor may be, Zion Williamson aims to jump through whatever ceiling put above him. And he’s doing it in some scribbled on Jordan’s when he does it.
