WearTesters is reader-supported. When you make purchases using links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Why trust us?

The Top 10 Signature Athletes with the Best Performing Sneakers (According to You)

#1 (SORT OF) – MICHAEL JORDAN

Michael-Jordan-011 (1)
Image via Marty Melberg

The single biggest name drop on the list is of the GOAT himself Michael Jordan. Well, sort of. If you include any shoe with the signature Jumpman, including the Melo and CP3 line (as well as a lone vote for the short-lived Fly Wade line,) Jordan would account for 24.4% of all first, second, and third place ballots (a total of 2885 votes.) If you exclude those other athletes, the AJ line would account for only 18.3% of the ballot, dropping him to second.

Same results occur when accounting for just first place votes, with all Jordan shoes accounting for 28%, while the exclusion those Melo/CP3 accounts for 21%. This is good for first and second place once again.

As you can probably guess, the XX8 and XX9 garnered most of the votes for MJ (we’ll discuss those inclusions in the top shoe of all time article). Considering Jordan hasn’t played a game since 2003 and the fact that he’s his own brand at this point, it doesn’t seem fair to feature Michael in the #1 spot. Besides, MJ is pretty much everybody’s GOAT regardless.

Thus, here are the current signature players in order of best performing sneaker lines.

10 comments
  1. Great report! This really should help anyone looking for ideas of what to buy. Thanks for the great surveys!

    1. I think each performance review on the site will determine which shoe you should buy.

      This survey was more for what the general hooper likens as the best hoop shoe.

      Thanks for reading though. Glad you enjoyed it.

  2. Good stuff. Perhaps I may have missed this, but was there a size and position played question asked on this survey? While I am not six eight, but six four and I do weigh twofiddy and am a power player, so there is nothing that I do with a Kobe Bryant type shoe but look at it from afar. This isn’t about Kobe bias, because I do not like him, but his shoe are too flimsy to be considered the best performance option for players like me if I were to use this article as a gauge.

    1. This is more of a general survey asking what the best overall shoes are to the general populous.

      This isn’t a recommendation of what to pick up. Your own style and build will determine that. Obviously there are more guards out there than big men, so it’s skewed towards guard shoes a bit.

      Hope that makes sense. Thanks for reading.

  3. the kobe line, if only for the 6, the 8 and the 9, has to be at the very top (i’m also somebody who likes the 10 a lot, even if it isn’t a top of the line shoe it is a very dependable and supportive option)….the rose line, though, has to be right up there alongside the kobe series, i’m not a big rose fan but every shoe other than the 3 (which isn’t bad, it just isn’t special in any real way) has been inventive and performance-driven, the 4 was just a sleek, flexible, explosive beast of a shoe, i played in that until the upper and the sprintframe separated (inevitable after putting it through runs in the rain, extreme weather, etc.), while the 5 had unbelievable lockdown and support, probably the best containment i’ve ever experienced…of course, you had to get the chicago ice or the woven brenda colorway to get top class flexibility, too

  4. Disagree on the Kyrie assessment. Companies have consistently shown they can churn out shoes with good performance at a low cost. Kyrie’s shoe is one of many shoes that are victims of Nike somehow deciding zoom should not be felt. Other than that, great list and appreciate the work done.

  5. Yo! This was a really good read. Thanks for putting this together. I’ve played in models from almost everyone on the list except for maybe Kyrie. Definitely a well thought out article. Respect.

  6. Really nice article, very insightful and definitely one of the best because of the level of analysis involved. Hoping for a wider and deeper study in the future!

Add a Comment

Related Posts