Give LaMelo Ball's Shoe a Chance, Seriously
- Chase Meë
- Sep 4, 2017
- 4 min read
Y'all remember in like '03 when NikeID let you customize kicks for the first time but they were all whack? Nah? Well I do and they were whack—they only let you customize like two parts of the shoe and then put your number and initials on them. It was like here take these Nike Apocalypse but you can only change the upper sole color and there’s only 3 colors available, black, white, and grey, have fun! Yeah that was whack in retrospect but for the first time you could put your name on a shoe and not have to use a sharpie? Lit fam, I need all that!
Fast forward to now and NikeID customization is jammed packed with different silhouettes and a robust customization setup and back then, talking '03 here, they flooded the market with signature shoes... remember the Duncan’s? Yeah, they were absolute trash.
But they ended that around the recession and only handed out signature shoes to certain players, to the point where Nike and James Harden had to separate because at the time Nike didn’t feel Harden was going to turn into the superstar that he has. Crazy to think Nike could have Lebron, James Harden, Curry, Paul George, Kyrie, Westbrook(Jordan), Kawhi(Jordan), and KD all on their roster right now if they made the right moves.
I digress, the signature shoe game has been crazy since around the time James Harden went to Adidas. Everyone has a shoe deal; rappers have shoes deals, designers have shoe deals, even rappers that have never dropped commercial projects have signatures shoes now, crazy world. All this has lead up to the Big Baller Brand: possibly the greatest thing on planet earth, we’re talking about a brand owned by the player himself, we’re talking about an indie shoe company.
A what now?
Yes an indie shoe company—a start-up, grass roots, DIY shoe company that released a pair of shoes for $500 catching the eye of everyone in the basketball and pop culture sphere. Created by possibly the most polarizing person on earth at the time, LaVar Ball the father to the Ball brothers, shouts out to Lonzo future GOAT go Lakers!
At the time he dropped the ZO2’s I remember being in a bar eating hot wings watching an interview from the night before and someone yelling out “I Fucking Hate LaVar Ball, FUCK HIM!” I chuckled, but then was wondering what did he do to deserve that? In professional terms he’s hedging his bets and leveraging everything on his son before he has a chance to do anything to mess it up. Genius and It worked so well both from a business stand point and from an on the court stand point with Lonzo absolutely showing out during the most watched NBA Summer League of all time. LaVar my man, props.
But now we get to where all this connects, any athlete wants their own signature shoe and has been thinking about it since they picked up their respective balls. LaVar has been in the spotlight since fall 2016 and has made it his point that you know who he is, know his brand, and know his sons are the best thing to ever touch a basketball. They are the Kardashians of basketball, but like how cool is that? Imagine being the really good at something and you have someone going around making sure everyone knows it, and all you have to do is go out and keep doing it?
The MB1’s are amazing, every adult that ever played competitive sports wishes their dad would go out surprise them on the first day of the season on some Disney 90s movie shit and make this a signature shoe, like really sit back an imagine for a moment your in the locker room getting ready for your first game of your junior year and you’re lacing up the same Kobe 9’s you’ve had for two seasons and your dad walks in with a box and is like here these are yours champ go out and drop 92 tonight! LaVar making all his kids dreams come true.
The Big Baller Brand has kept to a style now both the MB1’s and ZO2’s look like different versions of KDs, Kobes and Kyries combined. The silhouettes are good, simple, with no gimmicks. They’re both priced extremely high but I’m sure that’s due to them being made to order because there isn’t a Big Baller Brand warehouse kicking out these shoes. If I was let’s say Jay Z I’d buy a pair (he bought 3 BTW) but I’m not so I won’t. Heard some chatter about how its absurd that LaVar is pricing these shoes at this price, but the ones talking will soon realize that no. one. cares.
Cheers to BBB giving the first High School student ever a signature shoe. Everyone that had to wear last season's Hyperdunks is jealous. Purchase 16-year-old LaMelo Ball's signature kicks here on Big Baller Brand's website.
