Devin Booker's Nike Signature Sneaker Is Taking Over the NBA

Photographs: Getty Images, Nike; Collage: Gabe Conte

Devin Booker and the Phoenix Suns have not had an easy time of it lately. After getting hammered by the Sacramento Kings, the Dallas Mavericks, the Los Angeles Clippers (twice), and the Ja Morant-less Memphis Grizzles, they’re entering mid-January—and the looming February trade deadline—just a hair above .500 and hovering uneasily on the edge of play-in contention.

But while the team is still waiting for their starters to click, Booker himself is still playing at the very highest level, averaging a substantial 26 points and 7.8 assists across the season so far. He’s destined for further All-Star and All-NBA honors and—if he, Kevin Durant, and Bradley Beal can finally find their rhythm—there’s no telling how high his ceiling is on this Suns squad.

Booker has been doing all of this and more in a very special pair of sneakers: the Nike Book 1, his debut signature sneaker with Nike, which he’s been rocking on court in game after game and which has lately been lighting up the league. One of the most immediately impressive signature shoes in recent memory, it strikes the ideal balance between performance brawn and street-ready verve—a crossover hit in the making months before it’s set to hit retail shelves. It’s a seriously great shoe.

Inspired by Nike staples like the Air Force One, the Blazer, and the classic Air Jordan 1, the Book 1 has a timeless, old-school silhouette. Wrapped in canvas and twill, its weather-beaten, lived-in exterior shrouds a deluge of state-of-the-art tech—including a proprietary Nike Cushlon 2.0 foam midsole—to allow it to perform at the highest level. A match made in heaven, as far as basketball sneakers are concerned.

Booker debuted the shoe in a dusky orange colorway reminiscent of the obscure but beloved “Gatorade” Jordan 1, notably deeper and more burnished than most modern sneakers. A distinctive shade with which to introduce a new sneaker line, to be sure, it’s been making the rounds all over the league, as many of Booker’s current and former teammates have been playing in pairs. Kevin Durant has been seen rocking the Book 1 on the bench—a testament to the fact that the shoe looks great with casual clothing—while former Suns forward Mikal Bridges, sent to the Nets in the KD trade, paid Booker homage by wearing the Book 1 through most of December.

His current teammates have been vocal in their support: KD told the sneaker blog Nice Kicks that the shoe is “a huge accomplishment,” likening Nike to Apple and explaining that “to be a signature athlete for one of the biggest companies in the world means a lot.” Beal said that he’s “a huge fan of it” and that he needs his pairs “in every flavor,” adding that for Book to have his own shoe that he helped design and create himself was “every kid’s dream” come true. It’s a massive amount of support from fellow players who understand intrinsically that the Book 1 is more than just your average hoops shoe.

With the launch of the Book 1, Devin Booker joins several other youngish NBA stars—including Jayson Tatum, Ja Morant, Anthony Edwards and Luka Doncic—in heralding the arrival of the next generation of signature basketball shoes. For many, the Book 1 has emerged as the cream of the crop. “The Book 1 has been a highlight, to me at least, thanks to Nike and Booker seemingly approaching the design with the mentality that it should look as good off the court as it does on it,” says sneaker writer and GQ contributor Tres Dean. “Instead of a hyper-futuristic, teched-out sneaker, it looks like a classic pair of kicks with a priority on quality materials and lots of room to play with effective color blocking.”

Over the past several weeks Booker’s been showing off the range of that color blocking, wearing new pairs of Book 1s on the court in a wide variety of impressive styles. The black-and-orange pair he donned at the beginning of the month were an homage to the fan favorite “Shattered Backboard” Jordan 1 and looked fantastic on the silhouette, already another classic in the making; earlier this week he wore them in a vintage “Metallic Purple” colorway, referencing another (and even more obscure) Jordan 1 model from its earliest days in the 1980s. The fact that Booker’s been selectively choosing these sneakerhead grails to pay tribute to draws an even stronger connection between his own shoe and the classics of the past. Although it hasn’t even been released to the public yet, Booker is making a statement: The Nike Book 1 is a sneaker that's here to stay.

Originally Appeared on GQ

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