Jayson Tatum Shoes: A Full Timeline

Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics has become one of the best players in the NBA. He’s blossomed into an excellent two-way player and a bonified MVP candidate. He is a skilled big versatile wing guard, and, of course, Jayson Tatum shoes factor into his playing style.

Tatum was born in Saint Louis, Missouri. His father, Justin Tatum, played college ball at the University of Saint Louis, his godfather was NBA star Larry Hughes, and he is related to ex-NBA Player, and current head coach of the LA Clippers, Tyronn Lue. It’s safe to say that basketball is in his blood. If that weren’t enough he has been mentored from an early age by the likes of St Louis native Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant, and the late-great Kobe Bryant.

Jayson is not only on track to becoming an all-time great in the NBA but after signing a $75M five year deal with Jordan Brand back in 2019, is also in line to get his own signature shoe. So, with all this in mind, let’s dive in and go over Jayson Tatum’s sneaker history.

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Jayson Tatum Shoes: Boston Celtics

Jayson Tatum Shoes 2023-24

Tatum experienced a slight decrease in production during the 2023-24 season. He averaged just about 27 ppg, 5 apg, and 8 rbpg. However, that did not affect the Celtics’ performance or his all-around standing as a player. He was named to the all-star team, he ended up 6th in the MVP race, and the Celtics ended the season as the best team in the League.

Tatum produced all of this while mostly using his signature model from the previous year. Then, Around April 2024, he debuted the brand-new Tatum 2:

Air Jordan Tatum 2

Buy Jordan Tatum 2

The first Jordan Tatum ended up being one of the more disappointing basketball shoes of 2023. It was very lightweight, but that was its best feature. The fit was wonky, lockdown was average and traction was spotty at best. So, when the first images and the tech specs of the Tatum 2 surfaced, sneaker fans were immediately intrigued.

The Tatum 2 is a completely different shoe. It features wildly different tech and a completely new build, but, if you’ve been into sneakers for any amount of time, you know that implementation is everything. So, how the Jordan Tatum 2 actually perform on court?

Disappointing is the best way of describing the Tatum 2. All the changes Jordan made to this shoe did very little to improve performance in any way. Jordan Brand now has two of the worst signature lines on the market: the Tatum and the Zion. The Jordan 38 is an amazing performance model, which makes these gaffes all the more surprising. Hopefully, they can get their act together for the Tatum 3.

Jayson Tatum Shoes 2022-23

Jayson Tatum is having an MVP cliber season. Not only is he turning in career-best averages of 30 ppg, 8.6 rbpg and 4,5 apg but the Boston Celtics are on fire. The C’s are currently the best team in the NBA and feel like one of the top contenders, if not THE TOP contender, for the NBA title.

Tatum also had a very eventful 2023 All-Star Weekend in Utah. He dropped a record-breaking 55 points during the game, was named the game MVP and he officially unveiled his first signature shoe, the Jordan JT 1.

Air Jordan Tatum 1

Buy Air Jordan JT 1

The JT 1 is an odd-looking performance model, but it packs a ton of performance features and is the lightest basketball shoe on the Jordan performance basketball line. Jayson Tatum will join Luka Doncic and Zion Williamson as Jordan Brands’ marquee signature athletes.
 
The JT 1, aside from being an ultra-light basketball shoe, features an (again lightweight) TPU frame that gives the shoe torsional stability and structure to allow Jayson to make his signature side-to-side moves with ease. The shoe is wrapped by what Nike is calling “a ground-contact foam” that supposedly “also acts as an integrated traction pattern”.

This sounds a lot like Under Armours Flow technology. Flow uses the same foam as the midsole/cushioning as the traction. This setup allows cutting down the weight of a shoe (no traditional sole of course means less weight) without sacrificing traction. It isn’t a setup that does well outdoors in terms of durability but it works very well in doors. The JT 1 has minimal rubber on the toe and ball of the foot to boost the traction in that area to cater to Tatum’s forefoot-heavy playing style.

In terms of cushioning the shoe boasts an uncaged Zoom Air bag in the forefoot helps provide high energy return without sacrificing court feel. Lastly, we will have a mesh knit upper that looks strong and lightweight. 

One thing that is unique to the Tatum 1 is that it is designed specifically to be easy for kids to get in and out of. To this end, the design team over at Jordan Brand implemented an injected TPU tailgate system to help with easy entry. The traditional lacing system, the mesh upper, and this new TPU system might mean that we will have a rival for the LeBron 20 as this year’s best-fitting shoe.

Jayson Tatum Shoes 2021-22

During the 2021-22 season, Tatum definitively established himself as one of the top players in the NBA and was integral in turning the Boston Celtics into a legit championship contender.

Tatum averaged 26.9 PPG, 8 RPG, and 4.4 APG during the regular season and was named to the All-Star team, but his and the Celtic’s season really took off during the second half of the year. Things began to gel and Tatum went from an All-Star to an MVP contender, and the Celtics went from a good team to the best team in the league (post All-Star break).

During the 2022 playoffs, we did see Tatum warm up in the new Jordan 37. This model recently dropped worldwide, and although it is a very odd looking Jordan, it seems like it will be an decent on court performer.

Buy the Air Jordan 37

Buy the Air Jordan 36

Jayson Tatum Shoes 2020-21

During his fourth season in the league, Tatum took a giant leap forward on an individual level. He ballooned his averages to 26.4 PPG, 7.4 RPG and 4.3 APG. He was named to the All-Star team and would finish 9th in the NBA in points per game. The Celtics, on the other hand, underperformed.

Tatum hooped the majority of the season in PE versions of that year’s Jordan flagship: the Jordan 35. But he must have missed the amazing performance features of the Jordan 34 because he also brought them back for a bunch of games that season. Off the court, we saw JT in several different pairs of Jordan 3s and the Jordan 4 Unity to name a few.

He also got to debut the Jordan 36 towards the end of the season, and that summer with the US national team. Tatum and the USA National team brought home gold at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Buy the Air Jordan 35

Jayson Tatum Shoes 2019-20

Tatum’s third season would coincide with the global pandemic, and therefore would be shortened and a good chunk of it would transpire in the NBA bubble in Orlando.

During the summer of 2019, Tatum played for USA Basketball during the Basketball World Cup in China. The team had a terrible performance and did not even medal. Tatum played in the Jordan Jumpman Diamond which was a surprisingly great performance model that Luka Doncic also favored.

During the NBA regular season, Tatum laced up one of the best (if not THE best) Jordan performance models of all time, the Jordan 34. He got a ton of different colorways and PE models.

Buy the Air Jordan 34

Jayson Tatum Shoes 2018-19

Jason Tatum’s second season in the NBA was very solid but rather controversial. The Celtics had been able to maintain their amazing roster which was one of the best Celtic rosters of All-time, and a clear candidate to bring home the Larry O’Brien trophy.

Tatum followed up his rookie season with averages of 15.7 PPG 6 RPG and 2.1 APG and turned in several performances that hinted at his superstar potential.

Tatum laced up a bunch of different Nike Basketball models that year. He made some interesting choices with his footwear. He primarily wore Kyrie 4s which might have seemed odd for a guy that’s 6’9′ and 210 lbs, but they probably served his shifty playing style well. He also played in the Nike Adapt BB, the Nike Kyrie 5, Nike Kobe AD Exodus, and the Nike PG 2. Casually, Tatum let everyone know he knew a little something about kicks, lacing up Foamposites, Jordan 1s, Jordan 3s, and Jordan 4s.

Jayson Tatum Shoes 2017-18

Tatum was drafted 3rd overall by the Boston Celtics. He turned in a very solid rookie season. Tatum joined an amazing roster of players that included: Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, Al Horford, Jaylen Brown, Terry Rozier, Marcus Smart, and Jaylen Brown. He started every game of the season and he was named to the All-Rookie NBA first team.

He averaged 13.9 PPG 5 RPG and 1.6 APG during the regular season but he shined the most during that year’s Playoffs. The Celtics had an amazing run and, somewhat unexpectedly, made it all the way to the Conference Finals. There they faced LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. They pushed the Cavs to 7 games, but would ultimately come up short. Tatum averaged an outstanding 18.5 PPG 4.4 RPG and 2.7 APG and would give us one of the most vicious dunks of recent years over none other than Lebron James.

During his rookie season, Tatum’s go-to shoes were the Kyrie 4s and the PG 2s, but he would also play in the Kyrie 3s, the Kobe 1s, and the PG 1. Off the court he brought some heat as well, lacing up the Air Jordan 13 Low Curry, the AJ1 Off White, and the Jordan 12 among others.

Jayson Tatum Shoes: Duke

Tatum only spent 1 year at Duke, which was more than enough to put the NBA on notice. He averaged 16.8 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.3 steals, and 1.1 blocks and was named to the 2016-17 ACC All-Freshman team and the 2016-17 All-ACC Third Team. Duke didn’t do much as a team, and Tatum was injured for a large portion of the season, but Tatum was more than ready to make the jump to the NBA.

Duke is a Nike school, so, of course, JT got a ton of exclusive Nike models. He wore everything from Kobes, to LeBrons to Kyries, but would always gravitate to lower cut, guard centric models.

Jayson Tatum Shoes: High School

Tatum played his High School ball at Chaminade College Preparatory School in Missouri. He was a highly recruited prospect out of high school after being named an All-American during the 2015-16 season.

During his high school days, Tatum’s footwear choices were a bit more varied, which is understandable. He wore everything from Dames, to KDs, to Kobes.

That will do it for our full timeline of Jayson Tatum’s shoes. Tatum has teased that he will be receiving a signature shoe from Jordan Brand, which has the sneaker-verse waiting with bated breath.

As Tatum continues his career, we will update this article with the latest Jayson Tatum sneaker news.

Let us know what you think, and if we left any models off the list. We look forward to hearing from you in the comments below, on Twitter, Instagram, or in our Discord community.