Recent comments from Brian Windhorst have reignited a debate about the state of basketball sneakers. The longtime NBA insider suggested that one reason Nike is struggling to move basketball shoes is because NBA players “aren’t as popular as they used to be.” It’s a headline-grabbing take—but it only scratches the surface of a much larger shift happening in sneaker culture. A Convenient Narrative On its face, the argument makes some sense. The golden era of signature sneakers was driven by transcendent stars like Michael Jordan, whose partnership with Nike didn’t…
Read MoreNike’s Basketball Shoe Struggles Go Beyond Player Popularity
