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As it pertains to sneakers, the San Antonio Spurs had a rather unprecedented and eventful season during the 2013-2014 NBA campaign. For starters, Matt Bonner scored a new shoe deal with adidas through Twitter, Manu Ginobili blew out a shoe in the middle of a game midway during the second half of the year and Jordan Brand began to supply NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard with alluring player exclusives, such as the “Grammy Week” Air Jordan XX8 SE. All this and more from a team who could care less about style and elegance on court. Characterless could describe the Spurs when it comes to shoes – you won’t see the latest shoe on any of their feet – but at Media Day we noticed some changes worth mentioning.
Here are a few observations after spending an afternoon at the San Antonio Spurs’ facilities during Media Day:
1. Kawhi Leonard wears Air Jordan XX9 PE – With Kawhi Leonard winning the NBA Finals MVP award this past postseason, we expect Jordan Brand to toss even more appealing player exclusives his way. Whether or not the subdued Los Angeles native wears them is the question, and that depends on the color scheme it seems. There were a couple of exclusives Leonard chose not to bring out last year, namely the “MLK Day” Air Jordan XX8 SE, because they were too “loud” for him. Yet, Leonard laced up a more subtle, black and white Air Jordan XX9 PE for Media Day this past Friday. It remains to be seen what Jordan Brand equips him with for Ring Ceremony Night.
2. Patty Mills is now an Under Armour brand member – Midway through last season, Spurs equipment manager Travis Wade revealed to us that Patty Mills would become an Under Armour brand member at the start of the 2014-2015 NBA season. We finally got a chance to see it with our own eyes, as Mills mingled with his teammates while wearing a white and grey colorway of the Under Armour ClutchFit Low on Media Day. Mills’ signing now gives the Spurs a representative of five different shoe brands on their roster.
3. Matt Bonner officially inked a deal with adidas – Around this time last year, Matt Bonner officially took over the Nice Kicks Twitter account, which eventually led to him landing a shoe deal with adidas. Throughout the past year, adidas has been sending Bonner boxes on top of boxes of sneakers. However, we found out from Matt during Media Day – in which he wore the adidas Crazy Ghost 2 – that he just recently inked an official deal with the Three Stripes brand.
4. Manu Ginobili swaps out LeBrons for Kobes – After ripping through his shoe midway through the season, Ginobli kept his feet exclusively in LeBrons throughout the rest of the season; Nike even created three awesome LeBron 11 colorways for him during the NBA Finals. Fast-forward to Media Day 2014, and we see the southpaw wearing a white and black version of the Nike Kobe 9 EM. How long will this last? We hope not too long. We all know Ginobili is too tough on a pair of shoes to be wearing something as light and delicate as a Kobe.
5. Danny Green is getting some custom work done on a few of his off-court sneakers – Danny Green switching back to #14 was the biggest news surrounding the former UNC Tar Heel, but another tidbit we came across is his new infatuation with custom sneakers. Although he laced up the black and white Gloves for Media Day, a shoe he consistently wore during the second half of the season, we learned that he has been connecting with sneaker customizer and San Antonio native Jake Danklefs on a few off-court custom sneakers, such as the Jordan Future. He plans to get some work done on a few shoes that he’d consider wearing on court as well.
6. PEAK’s presence at the Spurs’ facilities is prominent – Point guard Tony Parker was absent due to a flight delay in his travel back to San Antonio, but the PEAK brand member has undoubtedly made his presence felt throughout the organization in regards to sneakers. A number of Spurs employees, such as the equipment manager (and his assistants), the trainer and even a couple of media members sported PEAK sneakers at Media Day.
