The movement started a few years before W was founded. After scoring a career-high 47 points to win the ’93 NCAA Championship with the Texas Tech Lady Raiders, 22-year-old Cheryl Swoope signed with The Swoosh. The future Hall of Famer and four-time WNBA champion was a reliable lock for the ’94 USA Women’s National Team. Nike and lead designer Marnie Gerber were in the process of making history in the FIBA ​​World Championship bronze medal match.
After falling short of expectations in ’94, a 52-game exhibition schedule was prepared. As a historic group of players including Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley, Nikki McCray and Katrina McClain prepared for the ’96 Olympics, Nike released the first women’s basketball shoe, the Nike Air Swoopes I. The model was filled with Swoopes’ insights. , which is highlighted by her signature ‘S’ logo on the tongue and rounded heel tabs so she can easily slip in and out of the shoes with her long nails.
The red, white and blue colorway will be the first of seven special Swoopes silhouettes, the longest run of any female basketball player. In the inaugural WNBA season, Swoopes rocked the Air Swoopes Zoom III. He would go on to win four straight Air Zoom Swoopes for himself and the Houston Comets. She recorded the first triple-double in League history and won the ’96 Olympic gold medal in Air Swoopes II and won the 2000 WNBA MVP in Air Swoopes IV.
From ’95 to ’01, Cheryl Swoopes ushered in a new era of marketing and empowerment for women and young girls across the country in sports. And where he blazed a trail, others expanded the realm of possibilities.
After witnessing the success of Swoopes’ first three silhouettes, Nike will welcome a second WNBA athlete to the signature family; Lisa Leslie. A 101-point high school game continued to spread word of his dominance, the USC legend had potential from the hardwood to the runway, landing a modeling contract with the famed Wilhelmina agency before joining the LA Sparks in ’97.
After winning gold at the ’96 Olympics and securing all-first team honors in his rookie season, Leslie debuted the Nike Total Air 9 during his sophomore campaign in ’98. Inspired by the luxurious aesthetic of the Chanel handbags she grew up idolizing, Leslie’s first and only silhouette boasted a quilted leather upper and metallic overlays that echoed her love of silver jewelry. Incorporating Leslie’s design language, Nike has outfitted the midsole with a full-length Total Air cushioning system.
From the Nike Air Max Elite to the Blue Chip II and the Huarache 2K5, the three-time league MVP rocked their boxed models designed in exclusive Sparks colorways and emblazoned with his “LL9” logo.
While it usually takes 18-24 months to develop a marketing plan and a shoe to officially launch, Swoopes and Leslie dropped buckets of the first basketball shoes designed exclusively for women. In ’98, The Swoosh would further strengthen its roster with the release of Dawn Staley’s signature sneaker, the Nike Zoom S5. Displaying the first initial of his last name and his jersey number along the support strap, the glove-like model will follow the Zoom S5 II in ’99. That same year, Cynthia Cooper-Dyke entered the conversation after headlining the Nike Air Max Shake ‘Em Up in her rookie season.
Named after her jersey number, the Nike Air C14 saw the Houston Comet win a third straight WNBA championship and solidify Nike’s stake in the women’s game. Five famous shoes in five years.
To conquer its female-led roster, Nike did what they do best, cooking up a fire ad. Not just one, but three. Titled Young Kayla Pratt, The Little Rascals circa ’98 featured three young women, Lisa Leslie, Cheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper-Dyke and Tina Thompson, with questions and opinions about their game.
While Nike was rolling out the red carpet, Jordan Brand, which had been established for even a year as its own independent brand under Nike, released its basketball shoe designed exclusively for women. Released in the same year as the Air Jordan XIII, the Jordan OG used the same design language with perforated sidewalls and a carbon fiber midsole, while the heel was adorned with an embroidered Jet Black W.
SLAM 29 cover star Shamik Holdsclaw will revolutionize the turn of the century. As Cooper, Staley, Leslie and Swoopes pioneered Air Max and Zoom Air-based cushioning, Chamique pioneered the brand’s latest on-court technology, the Nike Shox.
The iconic Nike Shox BB4 became a Holdsclaw staple in ’01. His version, however, drew on space-themed inspiration, with a perforated pattern laid across the leather sidewalls to mimic craters on the moon. After securing the points title in ’02, Holdsclaw dropped the debut of his signature Nike Shox Mique II.
Three years later, a future contender for the GOAT title would emerge, marking Nike’s sixth female athlete, Diana Taurasi. The reigning Rookie of the Year entered the ’05 season with the Nike Air Taurasi, hurting the UConn and Mercury-based colors. Its Maserati-inspired logo sat proudly along the outer heel above a sea of ​​quilted stitching.
The following season saw DT and The Swoosh relaunch it, switching from an air-based cushioning solution to the much-popular Shox technology. Aside from the orange and purple palettes and ‘Taurasi’ printed insoles, the Nike Shox DT explores a much more subdued approach to the signature solution. Instead, the mid-height model was marketed to high school teams, who often wore matching sneakers. During ’06, Shox DT released a set of team bank colors that could easily match girls’ basketball teams across the country. However, Taurasi’s second sneaker will be the last signature line for women released by the brand in nearly two decades.
Instead of signature offerings, there was a more focused focus on tried-and-true brand solutions. The 02 season saw the widespread dominance of the Nike Shox Stunner. Four-time All-Star Tina Peniceiro went with an exclusive purple, white and silver colorway embroidered with the Portuguese flag, while Tina Thompson’s contrasting red pair wore ‘Cali Girl’ with royal blue stripes along the ankle strap.
Both Sue Bird and Seattle Storm teammate Lauren Jackson have been known to pack heat in the Pacific Northwest, turning up the W in PEs of the Zoom Soldier V and the acclaimed Huarache 2K4. Lindsey Harding, Deanna Nolan, Tamika Catchings, Bird and Jackson all made the Nike Air Flight Elite a staple in ’07.
Those reserved colors weren’t just reserved for players. In 2011, Nike showed the entire LA Sparks organization some love to celebrate their 15th season by releasing an extremely limited 24 pair of Nike Zoom Hyperfuse in the team’s eccentric color scheme.
That same year, Jordan signed one of the greatest players ever, Maya Moore.
Entering his rookie season with the Minnesota Lynx, Moore has spearheaded the brand’s sleek, polished and equally explosive ethos. During his tenure at W, Moore promoted Jordan’s complete line of court solutions, from the Jordan Fly Wade and Jordan Super Fly to the Jordan Game shoe; A modern continuation of Michael Jordan’s signature line, now in its 39th iteration. Moore rocked exceptional colors and textures. The Air Jordan 28 through the Air Jordan 32 became a blank canvas for gradients and hues inspired by the Lynx’s color scheme, marble, lenticular and galactic patterns, and of course, its signature logo.
Off the court, the former WNBA MVP explored her taste through the lens of retro Air Jordan silhouettes. Rich fabrics and colorful palettes complemented a number of Moore-inspired models, including the Air Jordan 1, Air Jordan X and Air Jordan XI.
Despite the care, dedication and creativity poured into Nike and Jordan’s flagship models, the lack of a leading female presence in basketball’s popular space has certainly been a point of contention over the years.
Want to expand your WNBA sneaker knowledge? Read more about how current W legends are creating their own revival movement.
