Tim Duncan's Shoes

OK, time to get back to business. The holidays have come and gone and its time to get our focus back on sports design. As you know by my previous posts, I'm a fan of the San Antonio Spurs. Even though I live nowhere near Texas, I watch every Spurs game via NBA League Pass on DirecTV.

As I've watched the games, I've noticed that Tim Duncan has been wearing an uncharacteristically stylish shoe this season. Duncan is definitely not known for his outlandish style or for setting fashion trends. Timmy is usually the poster child for consistency and calm. However, this season Duncan has been at the leading edge of shoe design.

Duncan wears the Adidas TS Commander LT shoe and has been sporting one of the craziest shoe designs I've ever seen. According to this article at Sole Collector, the shoes Duncan has been wearing this year were originally meant to be a Halloween promotion for Adidas.

The shoes feature a shiny black base with a pattern that looks like the bones in Tim's feet. From the top, you can definitely see the graphic and how it flows down the shoe. The bone pattern creates one of the most unusual shoe designs I've ever seen. The shoe also features a large version of the mandatory Adidas three stripe pattern, but the shoe is dominated by the bones graphic.

The design can even be seen from the bottom of the shoe. The translucent tread reveals the bottom of Tim's bone pattern. Whether you are a fan of this design or not, there is no denying that it is an unusual look, especially when being worn by one of the league's most conservative players.

Comments

[Daniel J Leonard]

As unique, and UGLY as Nike's original red, black and white Air Jordans.
I always loved adidas for their clean, classic look, and the fact you could wear them right away with no blisters.
Any of the Converse, Nikes, Ponys or Pro-Keds I wore as a young hooper all needed at least three practices, or all day in the YMCA gym before they were properly broken in.

I did love Mars Blackman as Air Jordan's pitchman.

Daniel J Leonard
Tucson, Arizona

[Hoolie67]

Daniel has a point about Adidas. I also love their clean, classic look and that they have kept that philosophy in tact with their football cleats. As much as I hate NIKE and also agree with Daniel's assessment of the original Air Jordans, I have to disagree on this Adidas skeleton shoe. I think why I like it is the fact that it isn't over the top. It's subtle and done well. Unlike what the NIKE machine would do (they would overkill of course).

My dad sent me a heads-up on this shoe a few weeks ago and I am glad to see SDB do a feature on them.

I give Duncan credit for wearing them and Adidas credit for doing them right.

[johnhisee]

My dad sent me a heads-up on this shoe a few weeks ago and I am glad to see SDB do a feature on them