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

#3 – derrick rose

Image via Armando Villarreal
Image via Armando Villarreal

While Derrick Rose hasn’t recovered to his MVP form, his shoes have been consistently touted, at least according to this survey. The Rose line took 6.7% of all performance models and 7.5% of all first place votes. To put this in perspective, Rose was only 13 first place votes behind LeBron out of the nearly 1000 first place votes cast.

The D Rose 6 makes up the majority of these votes, with the latest Derrick Rose signature ranking as the fifth best performance model. The D Rose 5 was the second most popular model in line, with the 2.5, 1.5, and 3 also receiving votes. Including Playoff (+0.5) versions, Rose has 10 signature models, not to mention the takedown models like the 773 line.

At his peak, Rose’s game was predicated on quickness and his leaping ability and those strengths have definitely diminished after all of the surgeries performed on Derrick’s legs. With that said, the line still is going strong due to the inclusion of Boost technology, as well as the mid-tiered price tag of around $140.

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!

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