“The feedback that we wound up discovering was that it was also more comfortable for male athletes.” “As we started building this shoe, we really obsessed the collar height and what was right for her,” added Ramprasad. “I thought it would just be in my shoe that Nike sent me, but seeing it in the shoe being sold… it’s truly something special.”Īlong the way, the group at Nike also took into account the precise silhouette that would be best suited for a female hooper like Wilson, along with a more sloping and narrow fit through the forefoot. “It’s crazy to think about,” A’ja tweeted of the very special personal accent. 22 along the tongue’s pull tab, and a nod to her grandmother – “Hattie Rakes” - embroidered on the underside of each tongue. When that particular version hit retail on, it also included her No. “It feels good to come from an authentic place of equity when we’re building product that we ourselves would wear.” “It wasn’t planned, but inherently, it wound up being a team of a lot of women that worked on this shoe,” revealed Deepa Ramprasad, Nike Basketball Footwear Product Director. While boasting full-length Zoom Air along the shoe’s strobel and a screeching computationally designed traction pattern, the Cosmic Unity line has also looked to lead in sustainability - more than 20% of its materials are sourced from recycled materials.Īs it turns out, the latest model molded for the structure of a woman’s foot was also crafted and developed largely by a women-led footwear team within the Nike Basketball category.

While Nike has focused its efforts on its handful of (male) signature shoes in recent years, as the Hyperdunk line began to be phased out, the Cosmic Unity model proved to serve as a new north star for innovation and performance when it first launched last year.

Nike cosmic unity 2 on foot