CLEVELAND, Ohio — Donovan Mitchell has never treated Louisville like a chapter he closed. It’s been a relationship he’s maintained, nurtured and expanded, long after his path took him to the NBA.
That throughline reached a new milestone on Thursday when Louisville unveiled special edition Adidas uniforms for both its men’s and women’s basketball teams designed by Mitchell himself. The jerseys feature Mitchell’s signature “Spida” logo, making him the first active basketball player to place his personal brand on the uniforms of his alma mater.
The men’s team will debut them on Jan. 13 against Virginia, followed by the women’s team on Jan. 25 against Boston College. Both will feature a custom web-inspired graphic woven into the fabric, paired with the D.O.N. Issue 7 shoes.
It’s the most visible symbol yet of a bond that has been building for years.
Mitchell has been supplying Louisville with his signature shoes since 2019, when Adidas released the D.O.N. Issue No. 1.
Season after season, those boxes have arrived without fanfare, a steady reminder that his connection to the program didn’t fade once his NBA career took off. Six All-Star selections later, that habit has not changed.
His presence hasn’t been limited to gear.
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Earlier this season, Mitchell attended a Cardinals game on Nov. 11 against Kentucky while the Cavs were on a two-game road trip in Miami, slipping back into the building as someone genuinely invested in how the program is evolving.
That visibility matters, especially to players navigating the gap between college ambition and professional reality.
Over the summers, Mitchell has taken that influence a step further, working with Louisville players in a variety of settings — through his own camps and, most recently, in person on the Cardinals’ court.
This past summer, he showed up in a red-and-white practice jersey, blending in with the team but commanding the floor. In an offseason dedicated to getting into the best shape of his career, Mitchell used the sessions not just to sharpen his own conditioning against young college legs, but to give the players a live demonstration of NBA-level preparation and skill. The pace. The focus. The precision in every rep, each one executed with purpose.
Mitchell has been open about why those moments matter to him.
Louisville is where his foundation was built, where he learned how to work, how to compete and how to take the game seriously before the stakes became global. Returning to that environment keeps him connected to those roots, while giving younger players a clear, unfiltered look at the level required to reach the league they dream about.
Everything Mitchell does tends to come back to intention. The way he trains. The way he leads. The way he chooses where to invest his time and energy.
This uniform project fits that pattern.
It isn’t a one-off collaboration or a branding experiment. It’s the result of years of consistent involvement, trust and genuine care for the program.
The reward is historical, but the process behind it is familiar. Stay connected. Show up. Give back without needing recognition.
Now, Mitchell gets to see something he created worn by the same program that helped shape him, on nights that matter, in front of crowds that understand exactly what that logo represents.
For Louisville, it’s a statement about identity and continuity.
For Mitchell, it’s simply another way of staying true to who he’s always been — someone who never forgot where it started, and never stopped pouring into the place that helped him become who he is today.