During the 2018-2019 NBA season, the NBA will allow players to wear sneakers of any color at any point, loosening up a longtime restriction that dictated what players could and couldn’t wear on court.
From the league banning Michael Jordan’s black-and-red Air Jordan 1 (Air Ship, technically) sneakers to LeBron James wearing 51 different versions of his Nike LeBron 15 model last season, the NBA is seeing a movement grow by loosening its sneaker regulations.
Moreover, as evident in its jersey partnership with Nike, the NBA has created some leeway in regards to the looks of a player; for instance, the addition of several alternate jersey designs allowed the removal of traditional white-based jerseys worn only for home games. Teams are now at their own discretion to designate their home and road jersey colors.
According to ESPN’s Nick Depaula, the only ongoing restrictions will regard third-party logos, which still will have to be pre-approved by the league office before making their way to the court. That means that custom sneakers will still have to go through additional screening to get approval from the league for on court uses. Additionally, there still are restrictions against any “sharp protruding objects or reflective elements,” such gleaming chrome.
Despite the loosening of the rules, it must be stated that teams can still impose their own sneaker policies to regulate what players can wear on the court.
Will we be seeing a sneaker outbreak in the upcoming season? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: ESPN / Images courtesy of Nike
Wait, what does (Air Ship, technically) mean?
It was technically the Air Ship and not the Jordan 1 that got banned.
personally I’d like to see it go the other way. I think it looks awful when you got oddballs on the team wearing some garish color that isnt even a team color. it should be an absolute must that the majority of the shoe is one of the team uniform colors. save the flashy stuff for the ASG
We got the NFL for that
I would miss more the team color unity when it comes to sneaker colors. I don’t mind wearing loud and bright colors (not the traditional white home, black away – but hey I grew up admiring them), as long as all the players wear the same.