Two of the WNBA’s biggest sneakerheads had a win well before the postseason even started.
Las Vegas Ace Dearika Hanbury and Seattle Storm’s Satou Savary are currently in the playoffs and received the Melody Esani-designed Air Jordan 36 PE (Player Exclusive). Because the championship ring is not open to the public.
“It’s really hard to get people to care about high-performance basketball shoes these days, so the Melody Esani Air Jordan 36 was a big deal,” said Brendan Dunn, host of the sneaker talk show Full Size Run. “But she was able to get that energy back for a second.”
Esani, 42, has long black hair with two blond tendrils, gold rings and bracelets encrusted with traditional Persian symbols, rainbow stiletto nails, and most of the time sneakers. . She recently designed tour merch for her husband Flea and his band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and announced her first child pregnancy on Instagram in July.
She also heads her namesake streetwear brand. Also, as her first creative director of Foot Locker’s women’s products, she served as lead her designer for her basketball performances and her sneakers. This is unusual in the sneaker industry, where women are often invited to “color up” or choose new colorways for lifestyle products from major brands.
A handful of WNBA players have teamed up with the sneaker giant in player-exclusives, and a handful of female elite players like Breanna Stewart (of Puma) and Candace Parker (Adidas) have signature performance shoes. But Nike and other footwear giants barely mention the female designer of her performance sneakers, a huge segment of the sneaker industry and a design discipline central to the lore of sneaker culture. .
Nike didn’t reveal a specific number of women who led the design of the basketball. The company is suing in a sex discrimination class action lawsuit filed in 2018 by a former employee who claimed that women were paid less than men and were barred from key roles. I was exposed to inappropriate behavior by a supervisor at Nike.
Basketball performance shoes aren’t the sales phenomenon they once were, but Jordan retro releases still make up a big chunk of the resale market.
And there’s a thriving industry that sells sneaker design myths. Sophisticated coffee his table book about the groundbreaking sneaker and its advertising campaign became a bestseller. Respected designers appear in podcasts and documentaries about creativity. They give TED talks that go viral. To attract a younger audience, major museums host exhibitions showcasing sneakers as art.
After Esani’s design was showcased when the Boston Celtics’ Jayson Tatum wore it before Game 2 at the NBA Finals in June, she transitioned from high school baseball player and NBA intern to designer. I looked back. In a post on her social media, Ehsani wrote, “By the time I get the chance to work on my performance shoes, I’m slowly working on them,” adding that many of the iconic Air Nikes behind her Jordans. With designer Tinker Hatfield, Michael Jordan was her ultimate “dream.”
Most conversations about sneaker design start with Mr. Hatfield and Mr. Jordan. His collaboration on 16 releases from 1993 to 2003 set the standard for how performance basketball transcends lifestyle. At the behest of Mr. Jordan, and often against the orders of Nike executives, Mr. Hatfield makes basketball shoes adorned with non-traditional materials, and even sports haters buy (many, many) pairs.
Hatfield famously chose patent leather for the Jordan 11 because Jordan said he wanted sneakers that looked good enough to wear with a tuxedo. In 1996, R&B group Boyz II Men paired up in white tuxedos at an awards ceremony.
Fiona, who served as Reebok’s vice president of footwear design from 1990 to 2000, said in 2021, when London’s Design Museum held an exhibition to show how sneakers “became a cultural icon of our time.” Adams perked up.
Ms. Adams has overseen the work of designers who have become synonymous with sneakerhead legends. She created her program of in-house training to teach designers to cobbling (rather than designing in only 2D or relying on 3D computer modeling for her). According to her, this was her first performance her shoe using a zipper closure.
Adams said he left the exhibition feeling frustrated. She counted only one major brand woman whose work was included in the show: Shaquille designed her O’Neal signature her Shakunosis her shoes for Reebok in 1992. It was Judy Claus.
“So the ongoing research was really disappointing,” Adams said.
Ehsani pointed out that there aren’t many benchmarks for women in athlete-only jobs. “I’m almost ashamed of not knowing other women,” she said.
At Jordan, her design was done through Senior Color Designer Kelsey Amy, who was the middleman between Esani’s vision and Nike’s manufacturer. Amy has worked in player-only jobs with her NBA and her WNBA players at Jordan, but it wasn’t until she joined a marketing internship at Nike in 2013 that she said, “This job is for me.” I didn’t know it existed,” he said. Although she was accepted by other female designers there, she had no discernible support across the industry.
“You can’t necessarily say you have an established network,” she said.
Suzette Henry seeks to make it easier for women and people of color to participate in performance design. She is the founder and instructor of the Academy, where she teaches up-and-coming designers how to design and use materials that stand out in her performance sneakers.
After working on material research and design for Guess, Skechers and Nike, Henry was recruited by Jordan in 2000 to become the brand’s first material designer. Perhaps her most famous contribution was stingray leather, which she developed after inspiring her to create a viable alternative for mass production. and a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Henry’s synthetic “leather” was incorporated into several Jordan Retro models and special projects. (Mr. Jordan fell in love with it and used it in his golf bag.)
Henry said Nike has always attracted qualified female designers for leadership positions in performance design, but there is a glass ceiling at the director level. “It’s just sexism,” she said, adding that many top executives are men who tend to elevate other men. I’m guilty of being very happy with people who look like me.”
As sales of basketball sneakers dwindle, female designers are turning to designs for other types of performance footwear, such as athleisure and low-impact sports gear. Multi-billion dollar athleisure company Lululemon has announced that it will launch running and training shoes in March. Adidas has a brisk business through its Stella McCartney line. Retired Olympic sprinter and former Nike endorser Allyson Felix has her own performance sneaker brand, Saysh.
Few breakthroughs have happened for women designers, but Ehsani said it’s still her dream to design signature products for basketball stars. In that vision, she couldn’t decide whether LeBron James, Ja Morant, or girls’ high school prodigy Juju Watkins was her Jordan to Hatfield.
“I’m not even in a place where I have a taste,” Esani said, adding that he’s “very keen” on opportunities where players don’t matter. She then added her plea, which recalls Nike’s famous catchphrase.
“Let me do this, just give me a chance to do it.”
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