Jalen Brunson scored 30 points, including 13 in the fourth quarter, and hit a critical go-ahead 3-pointer with less than two minutes remaining during the Knicks’ Game 1 win over the San Antonio Spurs. He followed that by grabbing five steals and hitting a go-ahead free throw to seal a victory in Game 2, adding to his rapidly expanding legend status in New York.
Brunson’s NBA Finals performances have come in three types of Kobe Bryant signature shoes. The 29-year-old started Game 1 in Nike Kobe 3s and ended in Nike Kobe 6 Lilac sneakers. He played Game 2 in the Nike Kobe 6 Knightfall Vader.
Sneakerheads have shown a strong appetite for Brunson’s game day choices throughout the season. While player exclusive designs such as the Kobe 6 Lilac or Knightfall Vader often aren’t available to the public, Nike released a Statue of Liberty Kobe sneaker in December 2025 for $200 a pair that Brunson often deploys—and they’ve been a massive hit.
“Kids go crazy for these,” Miguel Peña, the lead manager at Manhattan-based sneaker reseller Flight Club, said, referring to the teal Statue of Liberty shoes. “Believe it or not, this is the hottest Kobe selling right now.” The demand has been so intense that Flight Club regularly sells out of the item at more than four times the face value.
If Brunson can move Kobe shoes, could the biggest star in the biggest city in the U.S. do so with his own footwear line? The Knicks’ star point guard, who isn’t one of the 27 active NBA players with a signature shoe, according to Hype Beast, reportedly turned down a chance to get one before.
BCE Consulting’s Matt Powell, who spent more than 20 years as a sports retail analyst, said that the first edition of a potential Brunson signature shoe “would sell out” if Nike got it to market within 60 days of a Knicks championship—an extremely tall task given the complexity of these negotiations.
At the same time, retail trends have changed significantly since the Air Jordan 1 arrived more than 40 years ago, leading consumers to shell out billions of dollars to “Be Like Mike,” the renowned tagline from Gatorade’s 1991 advertising campaign with Michael Jordan. Powell is skeptical about the return on investment any of those deals can provide in the long term.
In the sneaker and apparel industry, the bulk of the money is made in lifestyle products. Recently, consumers have shifted toward using running shoes as an everyday product as opposed to performance basketball sneakers, with an exception for retro shoes. That, Powell notes, has sent the industry “sideways for 10 years.” Plus, top NBA stars tend to earn more than sevenfigures annually from those arrangements, a mark that’s difficult to recoup from merchandise sales alone. “No player is earning out his contract,” Powell said in an email.
Nike did not reply to a request for comment.
Championship pedigree alone doesn’t guarantee success. Stephen Curry signed with Under Armour in 2013, and while his signature line sold well at the outset, the company struggled to capitalize on one of the NBA’s generational talents. Curry and Under Armour split in 2025, and the Golden State Warriors star this month joined Chinese shoe and apparel maker Li-Ning on a 10-year-deal reportedly worth more than $400 million.
Meanwhile, Adidas has done well with Anthony Edwards’ sneakers, Morningstar analyst David Swartz noted, and the Minnesota Timberwolves star has yet to climb the NBA’s proverbial mountaintop. Flight Club’s Peña said the fashion elements and basketball performance of Ja Morant’s sneakers made them quite popular among his store’s patrons as well, even as the controversial Memphis Grizzlies guard has seen his star diminish.
“It isn’t necessarily tied entirely to the athlete and how popular the athlete is,” Swartz said. “Right now, there are too many signature shoes.”
Nike has floundered lately, with its footwear revenue falling 12% to $29.5 billion in fiscal year 2025. Converse and Jordan Brand, its subsidiaries, also saw their toplines decline by double digits. Nike stock hit a 52-week low in May, dropping below $42 per share, two years after the stock traded at more than $80.
A Brunson sneaker wouldn’t be a silver bullet.
“Until the next Michael Jordan comes along, there’s no one athlete that’s going to be able to drive significant sales that are going to really impact Nike,” Swartz said. “That could happen for other brands that are smaller, but not for Nike.”
That’s not to say New Yorkers wouldn’t be excited at the prospect of sliding on a pair of kicks bearing their beloved star’s name. Would they sell out? “Hell yeah,” Peña said, win or lose.