Alexa Filippo, ESPN
Two-time WNBA MVP Aja Wilson is finally getting a signature Nike shoe.
The long-awaited news came Saturday morning as Wilson’s two-time champion Las Vegas Aces prepared to face the Puerto Rican national team in a preseason exhibition at South Carolina’s Colonial Life Arena. Former Gamecocks national champion He wore a sweater “ofcourseihaveashoe.com” with its landing URL redirecting to Nike’s website with the ad. Wilson’s shoe is called “A’One”.
Nike also officially named Wilson to the brand’s roster of signature athletes — a group that includes Serena Williams, Megan Rapinoe, Naomi Osaka and the New York Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu. The shoe and the rest of Wilson’s signature collection will arrive in 2025.
“Working with Nike to make my dream collection come true has been amazing, and it’s truly an honor to take this next step and become a Nike signature athlete,” Wilson said in a release. “From my logo to the look of the shoe and the pieces in the collection, we’ve worked to make sure every detail is aligned with my game and style.”
After working with Nike for more than a year to develop her signature collection, Wilson requested the news cut in conjunction with Ace’s trip to her hometown of Columbia, South Carolina.
“The biggest thing for me is being able to show what I’ve been working on for two years in my hometown, in my hometown,” Wilson told Andscape’s Aaron Dodson. “The place where people looked at me growing up and raised an eyebrow: “She’s really good!?!” Then to see me in college and now in the pros.
Wilson became the 13th WNBA athlete to get a signature shoe, the most coming in her first year in the league. After a hiatus of more than a decade in which no WNBA players had a signature shoe, Breanna Stewart and Puma teamed up in 2015. While Nike debuted the Stewie 1s in 2022, Nike debuted the Air Delden, Elena Delle Donne shoes in 2022, as well as the Sabrina 1s for Ionescu. Next year.
With the WNBA champions in 2022 and 2023, Wilson has established herself as one of the best players in the league and on the face of the game.
In the year Those rumblings picked up again last month when 2024 No. 1 draft pick Kaitlyn Clark reportedly signed a deal worth up to $28 million with Nike that would include her own signature shoe.
“It definitely pays to be patient,” Wilson told Andscape. “This is something. [South Carolina] Coach [Dawn] Staley taught me — that some of the best things come with waiting, and that ‘delayed is never denied.’ It was something that bit me. That’s what I live for. So that’s something I’m going to keep.
Wilson’s popularity and influence extends beyond the courtroom: she has a statue outside the Colonial Life Arena, was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in 2024 and is the author of “Dear Black Girls,” a New York Times bestseller. -A sales book was released this year.
Her cultural significance is further strengthened by her signature shoes. Wilson said in a statement that the design process was “really fun” and she had no idea how much it would cost.
“It’s something that I’ve been working really hard on, and I think it’s something that a lot of people don’t understand,” Wilson told Andscape. “I didn’t want to just get a shoe … because I feel like when people think of me, when people think of my team, they know, ‘We go above and beyond.’ And that’s what I want my shoe to be.”
“It’s been an amazing journey, but now a lot of weight has been lifted off my shoulders because it’s getting harder,” Wilson continued. “But with the movement and development of the game, I feel like this is the right time to say, ‘Hey, I got a shoe on the road.'”
Wilson said in the release that she wanted the shoe to be “easy and comfortable for all the time spent on the court and look great,” adding that she hopes people will wear it both on and off the court.
“It’s exciting to share my signature, a piece of me, with the world,” she said.
Wilson and the Aces, who begin the 2024 WNBA season Tuesday, hope to win the league’s first three-peat since the Houston Comets won four in a row (1997-2000). Wilson is undoubtedly the MVP front-runner and is set to lead the US National Team in its quest for gold at the Paris Olympics later this summer.
Andscape’s Aaron Dodson contributed to this report.