words_Nick DePaula
One thing I’ve learned over the past few weeks is that the FIBA World Championships have a way of combining sneakers and team colors from throughout the industry that have no business being in the same sentence. Nike Basketball is putting a lot behind the new Hyperdunk 2010 and Hyperfuse, and adidas is pushing their new adiZero line thanks to the lightning-quick play of Derrick Rose, so of course it would make perfect sense then that a signature shoe who’s namesake is skipping the tournament entirely, in colorways nicknamed “USA” and “Miles Davis,” was spotted in a Brazil vs. Spain game, for example.
And unlike college teams matching sneakers in unison, or highly-touted pros in the NBA each wearing their very own player exclusive model with exact pantone accents, the FIBA games enter into some weird middle ground where there’s simply a blatant disregard for matching altogether.
Brazil’s Alex Garcia guards Spain’s Juan Carlos Navarro in this awkwardly clashing matchup of the Zoom Kobe V. The “China” Zoom Kobe V wouldn’t make team sense either for Navarro, but at least they’d match.
For some reason, the USA-themed Zoom Kobe V has been a hugely popular choice among players specifically not on the U.S. team. Here we have Ali Mahmoud of Lebanon getting stuffed at the rim by Spain’s Fran Vasquez, who is wearing what appear to be the ultimate adidas-Pro Model-turned-Grant Hill-tribute.
New Zealand’s Thomas Abercrombie, also a huge fan of America apparently.
By far my favorite moment of country confusion and the best sneaker sighting of the tournament was the awkwardly harsh and multiple seasons old “Stars & Stripes” TS Pro Models worn by France’s Mickael Gelabale. I can’t really explain this one.
Taking things a step even further, Brazil’s Alex Garcia was also seen wearing the “United We Rise” Zoom Kobe V. A second non-matching, yet U.S.-themed sneaker from Garcia in a tournament of nations! Perhaps somebody at Nike could’ve just ordered him a pair of iDs. Slovenia’s Primoz Brezec wasn’t exactly gifted a shiny new Hyperdunk 2010 or Zoom Hyperfuse apparently, as he’s sticking with the 2007 Huarache Elite.
Matching obviously is of no importance here – even for a player who’s country has an exclusive colorway of the Hyperdunk 2010 that not one player has worn – as Brazilian Center Tiago Splitter is seen in the White/Black/Red version of the same model.
And lastly, this is actually a shoe that was made specifically for Leandro Barbosa to wear in the World Basketball Championships and that features the Brazilian flag along the tongue, and still doesn’t match the team’s uniform. I have no idea why the lighter shade of blue on his adidas adiZero Infiltrate don’t quite match his uniform’s royal accents, but then again, that seems to be a common theme for players representing all brands in this tournament.
There is a Brazil colorway of the 2010 Hyperdunk?
I can’t speak for the larger countries competing here, but for New Zealand I’m guessing we didn’t have the clout to get a matching team shoe made. Sure, there may have been black/white nike shoes available, but I’m guessing the players chose performance over colour co-ordination.
American sports is the only place where shoes ever match up with uniforms… Pro soccer, and all codes of football, basketball rarely if ever have matching coloured shoes/boots etc. Check out Aussie Rules football, and most basketball teams… A lot of countries are too small/don’t have the right kind of distribution/are sold sneakers through an agent of the company rather than the parent company itself therefore can’t afford to have player/country edition sneakers for all teams.
At least we all know that the players have one thing in common… they like Nike and Adidas.
Actually some of these can be explained quite easily
1) Juan Carlos Navarro was probably wearing the blue kobe v because the spanish soccer team wears the same color blue shorts
2) Mickael Gelabale is wearing a red white and blue sneaker, last time i checked the french flag was red white and blue and so are their uniforms
3)Leandro Barbosa’s sneakers have blue because if u look at the brazilian flag the center is blue(the soccer team also uses the blue on one of their jerseys)
I would venture to guess that the reason Barbosa’s adizero’s are blue is because that is the main alternate color Brazil uses on their country’s jerseys is almost always blue. (i.e. Brazil’s national soccer team jersey: http://cdn2.ioffer.com/img/item/497/790/56/BrasilAway.jpg)
That’s because the colors got changed just for this Tournament, it always was Yellow(home), and Blue(away) as it should be(and they would’ve gone great with the Blue), and not White(home), and Green(away) 😡 yuk, nearly all Brasil players played in Blue shoes(so no one must have been completely happy with the Green), so bring back the Yellow home, and Blue aways, and destroy these Green monstrosities.
Blue Brasil jerseys would’ve looked something like this:
http://www.netscoutsbasketball.com/_uploads/blog/FIBABrazilNeto.jpg
To be fare to Leandro Barbosa, those colours are in the Brazilian National Flag.
The color is blue is in Brazils flag so their blue shoes were acceptable.
But I’m so glad you made this listing Nick! I’m watching these games like WTF is wrong with this! It didn’t make sense because they were all wearing fresh hot kicks – just the wrong colors!
So many wearing USA ZK5! haha
I’m actually half-Brazilian. The flag’s colors are Green/ Yellow/ Royal Blue.
His shoes are clearly Carolina Blue.
2) Mickael Gelabale is wearing a red white and blue sneaker, last time i checked the french flag was red white and blue and so are their uniforms
that’s a terrible explanation.
I’ve picked up on this since I saw Navarro wearing the Miles Davis Kobe Vs against the US in their exhibition. Matching is overrated in other countries apparently!
Barbosa’s shoes aren’t Carolina blue, they’re Bright Royal Blue.
You can tell because they’re darker than the Orion Blue in the back 😀
some nice kicks