The Zion Williamson Jordan Brand shoe is finally here.
The New Orleans Pelicans star revealed the new “Zion 1” sneaker in a commercial which he posted on his Twitter page on Tuesday, showing off the sharp, “Z” design that splits the colors of the shoe.
The sneaker, which he will debut in Tuesday’s game against the Nets, comes in four different colors, with the original “Gen Zion” in black and white, which Williamson said represents his upbringing and growth.
It is the first Jordan Brand signature release with its new era of superstars, which includes Jayson Tatum, Bradley Beal and Luka Doncic.
Williamson appeared on Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay” podcast and spoke about how grateful he was that Jordan Brand wanted to team up with him to create his own shoe, but nothing topped the moment when he met Michael Jordan himself.
“When I met him for the very first time, was All Star Weekend rookie year at the Jordan Brand party,” he said. “Like you said, it’s one of those feelings you can’t describe that. It’s one of. Those ‘that’s him.’ And he don’t even play no more…it’s like meeting Black Jesus.”
Williamson also spoke about how they came up with the design of the shoe, saying he met with Jordan Brand representatives last year and they asked him all sorts of questions from basketball to what’s going on in the world and even superheroes.
“They took everything I said and put it into like three different types of shoes, markups,” he said. “When I saw the one with the Z on the side there was no hesitation. Let’s start with that one.”
He added that when he was young, pulling up the tongue of the shoe was his favorite part and wanted to make it unique.
“[It’s a] Superhero-themed tongue,” he said. “…When I used to tie my shoes my favorite part was pulling the tongue up, so I wanted my tongue to be something different. Looks like it has armor on it. … When somebody walks into the store, I want them to be like, that’s Z’s shoe.”
The bottom of the shoe contains Williamson’s family’s names and the towns he played ball in, as well as two phrases on the side.
“Shock the world and let’s dance,” he said.
Rest assured, Williamson also said his foot won’t be blowing out through the shoe as it infamously did back when he played for Duke.
“No blowouts,” he said. “Very light. I generate a lot of force, but I also like to make a lot of cuts, slashes. What they did, the engineering team made the back lock down like support and the front has a lot of lightweight materials to make my cuts and quick movements.”
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