rewrite this content and keep HTML tags
The best signature shoes personify the player. They’re an extension of the style and vibe that their namesake stands for.
According to James Harden, his Adidas signature series might be the best expression of that approach in the industry.
“Right when you see it, it’s like, ‘Oh wow, what’s that?’ And then you know: ‘That’s the Harden. That’s a Volume,‘” Harden proudly says. “We got our own style and our own swag.”
Ever since Harden first landed his landmark 13-year signature deal with Adidas in 2015, the idea was to create chapters and volumes of signature sneakers that’d bridge the on-court with the off-court as the series evolved. They’re now on the ninth edition — officially dubbed the Harden Vol. 9 — with the series shifting over the years.
The debut Vol. 1 was fresh out the gate, with its slanted leather or suede toe cap and distinctive look. The models thereafter were admittedly up and down at times. When designer Jalal Enayah took over the reigns back in 2019, both he and Harden looked to refresh the line as they worked together on the 7 and beyond. They wanted to map out a new way for the designer-plus-athlete model to work.
“He said, ‘I can answer all the same questions over and over again, but that’s not going to let you know who I am,’” recalled Enayah. “He was all about, ‘If you want to know who I really am, come spend time with me and my friends.’”
“Come hang out with me, see who I am, and what I like,” Harden remembers telling the designer.
The product since the Vol. 7 has infused an elevated style that fits James’ world, beyond the court. The design team tries to pick up on the aura of the cars he drives, the things he buys and the places he visits.
For example, Harden wears a duo of matching diamond chains almost at all times, both featuring an iced pendant reading “UNO.”
The nod to his current jersey number has become a nickname amongst his close friends, but the acronym also stands for his confident mantra:
Under No One
“The shoes really stand for our personality as a brand — which is to be confident,” adds Enayah. “We want to be confident in who we are and uniquely us. James is the catalyst for that. We didn’t want to make product that looked scared or safe.”
A Board of Directors member and equity partner in Saks, Harden’s orbit is endlessly high end. Whether that’s being laced in Louis, toting Bottega bags or putting it on in all Prada, there’s an access and taste level that Harden has become accustomed to, that’s now also making its way into his Adidas product.
“We work with James like he’s a creative, rather just a muse,” described the designer. Everything from the silhouette to the mostly two-tone color palette has to fit Harden’s vibe around the clock.
When Harden was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers ahead of last season, the process became that much easier. The LA native welcomed the nearby DTLA-based Adidas team into all facets of his life, wherever and whenever that may be.
“I’ve talked to him about shoes in the club,” jokes Enayah. “I’ve pulled up on him on one of his vacations. Post game in the tunnels, we’ve had some really great meetings too.”
With less scheduled meeting structure and slotted agenda times comes more honest reaction and input, they all agreed. Harden also likes hearing his friends’ feedback and reactions on the fly.
Enayah even remembers getting a text to show up to a LA lounge at 1 AM once. He grabbed some samples and was on his way.
“I pulled up with a bag of shoes and begged them to let me in with them,” he now laughs.
For as long as signature shoes have been the industry format for how a basketball star could showcase their footwear and brand partnerships, players have said they wanted their sneaker to “look good on and off the court.”
As we all know, that’s been a tricky premise at times, with some sneakers simply standing as equipment to hoop in, and others falling short of both goals.
Harden has looked to change that.
“The thing is, this is a basketball shoe, but it’s a fashion shoe as well,” he described. “We’re taking it global and it’s meant for that. We’re doing an unbelievable job of having a balance.”
One of the first elements of building a shoe that can work both on and off court is dialing in the performance. Since the Vol. 7, there’s been a formula rooted in the pillars of comfort, traction, support and bold blocking that has come to define the latter looks of the line.
“There’s a lot of players that the Harden shoe wouldn’t make sense for,” Enayah says, speaking to the big picture approach. “When you see it on his feet, you instantly understand that this is an expression of him and him pushing the boundaries.”
The 7 had the swooping black around the heel and the pops of color through the quilted upper. The clean toe brought a sophistication that made it wearable. The 8 was even more daring, with a clean toe and knit collar returning, yet a dramatic oval shape along the side that was unmistakable from a mile away.
With the Vol. 9, the shoe incorporates that same sleekness and knit collar, with more branding added in, in a subtle way. As the team dissected the 7 and 8, they felt they could make it both lighter and bring in more breathability.
The newest shoe features a combination of Lightstrike and Boost foam for a cushioning platform that sits a little lower. The stripes along the side became a two-fold solve to not only add branding, but also improve the performance.
“We looked at supercars and how they ventilate their tires and breaks. That was the main focus,” begins Enayah. “We looked at some old Adidas ClimaCool stuff and drew some inspiration from that. The Three Stripes became more of a gestural manner. That was different for the Harden line, but still mixes it up.”
Visually, it worked. The shoe retained the sleekness and ability to boldly bring color and metallics to the model, while also giving the silhouette a new stance and a lower profile.
“If you have James, that opens up your possibilities and what you can get away with having a basketball shoe look like,” added the designer.
On the court, it also worked. To close the regular season, Harden was named Player of the Week for the Western Conference. It was the first time he was named POTY since February of 2021 — two teams ago with the Brooklyn Nets.
This year was also the first time he made the All-Star Game since the 2021-22 season. He wore sixteen colors of the Harden Vol. 9 since January, constantly bringing visibility to his newest shoe as the Clippers made their push to the postseason. He will appear in the NBA playoffs this weekend for a 16th consecutive time — every season of his career.
“Jalal gets a lot of credit for it, and then obviously, me playing better, that adds to it,” said Harden. “The combination of both of those things go into why we’re now doing what we’re doing.”
For the month of March, the Harden Vol. 9 became a top ten most-worn sneaker across the entire NBA, according to KixStats.com.
“We wanted to make it a better hoop shoe that all players would play in. You’ll see James, Zu and Bogdan all wearing it — three very different players,” added Enayah. “We wanted to make it a positionless shoe. That’s become a cliche term, but it really is what the NBA is now.”
Amongst the more than two dozen players to lace them up in the NBA, along with several colleges to receive their own school-specific colorways, rising players like Lu Dort and Jalen Williams have also each debuted their own player exclusive editions of the model.
“That’s the whole point — to extend,” Harden says, matter of factly. “Whether it’s JDub or Lu, we got a couple other guys under the radar that we want to get into the Vol. 9 too.”
Most signature shoes follow a bit of a similar formula when it comes to debuting each colorway. Throughout this season, Harden has opted to unveil most of his Hardens in the most grand way possible, as perhaps only he could.
With the help of Road Show International in Atlanta, he wrapped a handful of luxury sportscars in similar “V9” looks, and pulled up to his games with the syncing sneakers on. The fire ride-along footage fully brought his fans further into his world.
“He gave us all the ammo we needed,” said Enayah. “The pressure was on us to deliver something that matched his aura.”
First was the anthracite smoke Ferrari with red accents that matched the “Cyber Metallic” launch colorway. More recently, he arrived in a black and red Dodge Hellcat for the Clippers home finale in LA. When he pulled up to a road game in Atlanta in a clean green Maserati on a Friday night, Harden shut things down in real time.
The photo of a leather-laden Harden posing in front of the Four Seasons generated tens of millions of impressions. My tweet alone got more than 4,000 RTs and nearly 2 million views. Of course, there were the haters that he’s used to, but even they couldn’t still deny the vibe.
The sportscar stunt was pure vintage Harden. The comments were endless:
“Might be top 3 flex I seen my whole life”
“this is Hard Af!”
“Bring back this level of flexing”
“We’re thinking outside the box,” Harden beamed. “It’s killer.”
As the designer sees it, the supercar-inspired-sneaker coming to life with linking wrapped cars only made sense, and made for a “full circle moment” that the larger team at Adidas all helped to create.
“We make the silhouette, but the marketing team really carries the shoe and tells the story,” said Enayah. “That’s James and that’s what he wants to do. He likes to do things that are provoking and get people excited in a different way.”
“It makes sense,” says Harden. “This is who I am. It’s authentic. It’s natural. We’re not forcing anything.”
When we caught up last month in LA at the Adidas flagship store in West Hollywood, Harden was at it again, arriving in a matte white Rolls Royce with lime green accents that matched the “Pearlized” Vol. 9s on his feet. The grill and wheels even had custom details reading “UNO” and “V9.”
The showroom he walked into was a full Harden takeover, with dozens of future and exclusive editions of the Vol. 9 on display. The details included everything down to the drinks on hand, as classic and strawberry margarita options included “The UNO” and “The Step Back,” while three varietals from his J-Harden Wines label were also being poured for guests.
As the night carried on, his latest sneaker was on grand display along three rows of the back room. Each row read a key word, describing both Harden and his newest creation with Adidas:
Unconventional
Unmistakable
Unapologetic
Each of those descriptors not only encapsulates Harden’s approach over the years, but have also come to define the design of his series.
“Him giving us that access to his life really sparked the confidence to take bigger risks with the shoes, described Enayah. “We brought something to him that made us uncomfortable, and when he responded positively, that gave us the confidence to keep pushing.”
Since the Vol. 7, one of the biggest differences that the team at Adidas has noticed is not only Harden’s input along the way, but his excitement to post and highlight his latest sneakers. It’s something basketball fans have picked up on too.
Harden is one of the top ten most-followed NBA players on Instagram with more than 12 million followers. His feed has become an ongoing showcase of the new Vol. 9, flooded with on-court shots, video content and brand posts constantly highlighting the shoe.
“It only works if the athlete connects with the shoe and it feels like an extension of them,” admits Enayah. “If it is, you can see how they believe in the shoe, post it and are proud to wear it.”
In a landscape that now features more signature shoes than ever before — an NBA record 28 players wore their own signature shoe this season — Harden knows he needs to go above and beyond, on and off the court, in order for his shoe to break through.
“If you think about how many series are at 1, 2, 3 or at 12, 15 or 17,” he begins. “What can we do that they haven’t done? You gotta find ways to separate yourself.”
As he moved through the Melrose Avenue showroom of Adidas’ private party, Harden veered towards the middle of the space, where a lineage of his line was laid out on display.
Each of his nine models appeared in order, with adjacent imagery taking him down memory lane of the moments that he connects to each shoe.
“There’s a lot of 40s and 50s and 60 point games in a lot of those shoes. We created that. That’s tight,” he reflected. “It’s just a different feeling. I can’t even ask guys [how that feels]. There’s only a handful of guys right now that can understand what that feels like. It’s a blessing, it’s a testament to the work that I put in and to the team that I have around me.”
Already, the team is working on both the Adidas Harden Vol. 10 and Vol. 11 models for future seasons. This fall, Harden will become just the 12th player in NBA history to release ten consecutive signature shoes with the same brand while playing.
“We’ve got our groove now,” he says proudly. “I got my swag that we’re able to match, and we know that people are actually going to like, as well.”
With a myriad of moves in the business world off the court, Harden has amassed one of the largest portfolios of brand deals, investments and partnerships of any athlete. Now 35, he’s leaning on that experience as he maps out his long-term prospects even after his Hall of Fame career.
“I’m very intelligent. I’m very smart. I know the wave and I am the wave,” Harden continued. “Helping the brand, for as long as I can [is the goal.] It’s a partnership together.”
Now a decade removed from signing the initial 13-year deal back in 2015, Harden is already thinking about the next stage of adding to what he’s created with Adidas to date.
“My whole thing is, a lifetime deal with Adidas,” Harden said. “Let’s build a legacy and continue to do this thing, even when I’m not playing basketball.”
