This story appears in SLAM KICKS 27. Get your copy now.
Devin Booker is different. The way he approaches the game is different. His obsession with decades past, definitely different. His extensive classic car collection, different. His Arizona home decked out with tastefully placed vintage furniture, different. His historian-like knowledge of basketball sneakers, mad different. How hes approached the life cycle of his debut signature shoethe Nike Book 1has been emphatically different.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say. And with an eye as unique and curated as Devin Bookers, his debut signature sneaker was bound to be the culmination of years worth of meticulous passion and patience.
Off rip, the Book 1 looks unlike anything Nike has brought to the hardwood in years past. Its refined simplicity with a regal accent. Buttery-soft leathers, a rounded toe box and simple stitched overlays all create an off-the-court aesthetic coupled with a crazy court feel. Plush is an understatement.
Set atop a Cushlon 2.0 foam midsole and a top-loaded Zoom Air bag in the forefoot, Booker and lead designer Ben Nethongkome infused a cohort of premium materials and tech into his debut signature.
The Book 1 echoes the essence of a museum, casting a compilation of vintage and modern textures throughout the low-top. Depending on the colorways inspiration, the finish is bound to wax and wane, like the cracked detailing reminiscent of the Phoenix desert in the forefoot of the Chapter One or the smoothed touch of the tonal tan Mirage. In the midst, a thickly stitched work wear textile adds an emblematic depth to the mid-foot panel.
But before we dive in too much deeper, we need to take a journey. A physical and metaphorical one. A journey through the mind of Devin Booker and the literal path he walked from the dew-fallen ground of Beaverton, OR, to the scorched pavement of Arizona.
Nikes 24th athlete to have a signature shoe has been heavily committed to the signature process. The evidence is overwhelming. Taking a trip to the Department of Nike ArchivesDNA, for shortin Beaverton early in the models 18-24 month production cycle sparked the vision that Booker has since brought to life.
His first silhouette serves as an homage to the firsts in Nike Basketball history: the Air Force 1, the Air Jordan 1 and the Nike Blazer, the first Nike basketball shoe. Drawing inspiration from Bookers 72 Chevy Blazer K5where he preserved the vintage exterior and souped up the interior with a modernized enginethe Nike Book 1 explores an aesthetic that bridges decades. The result is a future classic crafted with a sea of lavish materials and a historic level of storytelling that can only be found in the mind of the 27-year-old.
During All-Star Weekend, Booker invited media members and close friends to an intimate library lounge to celebrate the debut of the Nike Book 1 in the Mirage colorway on the SNKRS app. Various colorways weaved throughout bookcases that lined the walls of the dimly lit room. Large leather-bound boxes inscribed in gold foil lay on wooden tables housing the inaugural sneakers. This was more than just input. A true, authentic collaboration was taking shape. An alliance that featured many, many exclusive iterations.
Throughout the 2023-24 NBA season, Booker showed his vast appreciation and understanding of the Beaverton brands history via an assortment of Player Exclusive colorways. On Christmas Day, he unveiled an homage to his fathers favorite shoe, the Air Max 95, in the 1995 Neon color blocking. A tribute to the legendary Air Jordan XI Cool Grey landed in early November. And those Be Legendary Kobe 4 and Kobe 5 colorways he was hooping in a few years ago? Yeah, he transformed them into their own matching ensembles.
His love for the outdoors was channeled through the infamous ACG Air Mowabb Twine colorway, matching the Teal Charge/Club Gold/Twine trifecta to a tee. And his refined, classic mystique emerged with a salute to the circa 1972 Nike Cortez in the white, red and blue color blocking that Forrest Gump was kicking around in the 1994 film.
The Air Jordan 1s construction wasnt the only inspiration that Book drew from the landmark model. The Metallic Purple and Shattered Backboard compositions were given their due shine, too. Classic after classic. OG after OG.
While the Book 1 made pit stops throughout Nikes sneaker mile markers, several nods to Books personal tastes appeared on the floor of Footprint Center. A triple-black treatment embroidered with a crisp white Detroit Tigers emblem arrived in early November. An icy blue throwback to his 2019 Moss Point Air Force 1 Low touched down a few weeks later. And a white clad concoction devoted to one of his favorite shows, Narcos, materialized in late March.
For the past 10 months, Devin Booker has been slowly reinventing the level of involvement for a signature athlete. The approach has been methodical, calculated, timely, purposeful; a canvas for his dedication to the process and the ones who came before. This sneaker, this moment, is decidedly Devin Booker.
The colorways, the mixture of fabrics, the tongue tab, the sleek aesthetic, even the ambiance found in the room out at All-Star Weekend, its all a result of who Devin Booker is at his core.
Theres a reason the models debut Mirage colorway smoked on the SNKRS app in minutes. Devin Booker just gets it. He cares about the storytelling, cares about materials, cares about creating moments. Devin Booker is a different level of tastemaker.
Photos via Getty Images.
