How active WNBA players fared the first time they wore their signature or player edition sneakers
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Kalan Hooks, ESPN
The New York Liberty’s 91-80 win over the Indiana Fever on Saturday was special for guard Sabrina Ionescu.
Ionescu, 26, debuted the second edition of her Nike “Sabrina” shoes after rumors that the “Sabrina 2” would debut during the summer. Ionescu and Nike did them one season better by breaking out the Sabrina 2 shoes against the Fever, who she dropped 12 points and added five assists against in the victory.
Ionescu’s sneaker debut follows the announcement that Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson will become a headliner for the Nike brand with a new signature shoe — the “A’One.”
The shoe is expected to be released in 2025.
Wilson will become one of three active players with their own signature shoe and the first Black player since Candace Parker’s Adidas “Ace Commander” and “Ace Versatility” in 2010-11. In addition to three players with their own shoe, multiple players have their own player editions.
Here’s a look at the rest and how they fared in their sneaker debut.
In her 10th season with the Seattle Storm, Loyd finally got herself a shoe with a deep heartfelt backstory: the Nike GT Cut 3: “Jewell Loyd.”
Loyd’s best friend’s son, Justice Swann, helped design the Nike PE with his favorite drawings. They include smiley faces and feature some of the phrases the family uses often such as “Got you,” “Go be great” and “Ready, set, go.”
Swann, 6, is nonverbal autistic but is known for his well-crafted creative drawings.
Nike gave Swann blank mocks of the shoe and his sister, Sloan, helped with the pattern, color scheme and handwriting presentation of the shoe.
“That’s my guy, and this is pretty cool, to have his mark and his story told on a shoe,” Loyd said.
The 10-year veteran debuted the shoe during Seattle’s opening night against the Minnesota Lynx. Though the Storm lost, Loyd finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds in her Nike PE of the GT Cut 3s.
Sabrina Ionescu
Ionescu’s first shoe, the “Sabrina 1” is taking the WNBA and NBA by storm.
At the time Nike presented Ionescu with the shoe, she became the 30th basketball player in Nike history between the NBA and WNBA to receive a signature shoe.
Ionescu wanted the shoe to tell the story of how she was told growing up that she wouldn’t be able to play basketball or play on boy’s teams. Her shoe is something anyone could wear.
Ionescu debuted the Sabrina 1s in the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup game against the Fever, where she chipped in nine points, eight rebounds and eight assists for the 90-73 win in the 2023 season.
Stewart finalized the details of her Puma “Stewie 1” shoes in 2021 and debuted them a year later.
As a captain of the 2022 WNBA All-Star Game for “Team Stewart,” the then-Storm star decided to wear the sneakers for the first time.
The colorway she sported in the All-Star Game shared the color schemes of Seattle’s alternate threads.
Team Stewart lost to Team Wilson, led by the Aces star, 134-112, where Stewart posted 14 points and four rebounds.
Stewart released the “Stewie 2” in 2023.
The Aces won their first championship in 2022, which was followed with Plum signing with Under Armour two months later.
The Aces won their second championship in the 2023 season, becoming the first team to repeat since the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001 and 2002.
With the Aces eyeing a three-peat, Under Armour gave Plum her own “Breakthru 5 PE” for Las Vegas’ ring ceremony in its regular-season opener. The shoe featured a Plum logo on the back with “Back-to-back World Champs” and the Roman numerals for 2022 and 2023.
Under Armour also supplied Plum with cigars to go with the shoe, inspired by her cigar line and the ones she smoked during the championship parades.
Debuting her shoes in the Aces’ season opener, Plum recorded 19 points and five assists in their 89-80 win over the Phoenix Mercury.
In the Adidas guard’s nine seasons in the WNBA, she earned herself a player edition of the Adidas “DAME 8” that was tagged with a colorful orange, blue and purple colorway. The back of the shoe reads “POINTGAWDDDDD,” a reference to Gray’s on-court personality.
Gray debuted the shoes against the Sky in the 2022 season, when she finished with seven assists, adding four points in the Aces 104-95 loss.
Ogwumike has been making noise in the WNBA since she was drafted as the No. 1 overall pick by the Sparks in 2012. In 2017, Ogwumike and her sister, Chiney, signed with Adidas before the company gave Nneka her own player edition of the “N3XT L3V3L” kicks, which she wore in the 2022 WNBA All-Star Game.
Nneka finished with 12 points on 66% shooting in the Team Stewart loss.
