Nike basketball runners

Nike basketball

Nike Basketball released its first shoes, the Bruin and the Blazer, in 1972. Crafted by the legendary Bill Bowerman, these and others inspired designers such as Bruce Kilgore, Tinker Hatfield, Eric Avar, Peter Moore and Leo Chang, whose bold creativity delivered some of the game’s most iconic silhouettes.

After a strong first decade, Nike Basketball released its debut Air-cushioned shoe, 1982’s Air Force 1, and signed the great Michael Jordan in a groundbreaking deal that launched the sport’s longest-running signature franchise. Key partnerships with Jordan’s teammate Scottie Pippen and his rival Penny Hardaway followed in the early 1990s, before history was made when WNBA Nike athlete Sheryl Swoopes became the first female player to receive a signature basketball shoe. The department continued to push the boundaries of innovation, introducing Air Max cushioning on 1993’s Air Force Max and Zoom Air on 1995 models like the popular Air Zoom Flight.

The new millennium began with the signing of Vince Carter, who showcased the futuristic Shox BB4 at the Sydney Olympics. Then, in 2003, Nike Basketball established two of the most important partnerships in its history, one with the rookie LeBron James, the other with then three-time NBA champion Kobe Bryant. Their influential signature lines have since introduced advanced technologies, such as Flyknit, Battleknit and engineered mesh, and produced some of the NBA’s most popular performance footwear. In the late 2000s, Kevin Durant joined the brand, bringing about the long-running, high-performance KD franchise.

Nike Basketball introduced its upgraded Elite series ahead of the 2012 NBA Playoffs, and in the run-up to the London Olympics basketball finals, twenty classic models, including the More Uptempo, Foamposite One and Hyperdunk, were rereleased. The 2010s also brought partnerships with the versatile Giannis Antetokounmpo, promising rookie Devin Booker, generational talent A’ja Wilson and eye-catching point guard Ja Morant. Each eventually earned their own signature shoe, with Giannis’ accessible Zoom Freak series launching in 2019, the visually striking Ja 1 in 2023, the suave Book 1 in 2024 and the fast, stable A’One in 2025.

Moving into the 2020s, Nike Basketball founded its ‘Greater Than’ franchise, which features specialised models like the nimble G.T. Cut, the rapid G.T. Hustle and the propulsive G.T. Future. Its list of WNBA players also expanded, with New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu becoming the first female athlete to release a unisex basketball shoe. Beginning in 2022, NIL deals brought in talented college players Caitlin Clark, JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers. One year later, Bueckers helped design her take on the G.T. Hustle 3, before Clark was officially announced as a Nike athlete during her second WNBA season in 2025. In 2026, Watkins worked on a distinctive version of the LeBron NXXT Gen, while two of the most exciting NBA players, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Victor Wembanyama, both penned new deals with Nike Basketball, each promising signature silhouettes.

Nike Basketball has had an illustrious history built on pioneering innovation and iconic partnerships, delivering some of the most influential basketball shoes and signature silhouettes of all time.