{"id":1233919,"date":"2023-09-19T10:37:50","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T15:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/?p=1233919"},"modified":"2024-03-22T10:16:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T15:16:36","slug":"devin-booker-nike-book-1-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/devin-booker-nike-book-1-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Devin Booker Talks His Debut Signature Sneaker and Why Drake Was the First to Get a Pair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Phoenix Sun reveals the details behind the Nike Book 1.<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

There is always something special about firsts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about your first job, your first car, or your first love. Regardless of whether they were good or bad, there\u2019s no denying that they were memorable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s especially true when it comes to a first signature sneaker. While most people are understandably bad at trying something they\u2019ve never done before, Devin Booker<\/a> was not going to miss on his prime opportunity to carry his own shoe line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he initially found out he was going to be Nike\u2019s<\/a> next signature athlete, he went deep into the brand\u2019s archives in order to find out how to create a sneaker that could be a \u201cfuture classic.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEver since they told me I was going to get my own shoe, I’ve been doing nothing but straight Nike DNA and history for the past two years,\u201d Booker said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is the Nike Book 1<\/a>, the player\u2019s debut signature that is reminiscent of the brand\u2019s icons like the Air Force 1<\/a>, Blazer<\/a>, and the Air Jordan 1<\/a>, as well as Booker\u2019s personal muses like his restored \u201872 Chevy Blazer K5 – a classic car in his collection that he LS-swapped and replaced with a modern engine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThis thing looks like an off-the-court shoe, but under the hood we took inspiration from restomod cars,\u201d said Ben Nethongkome, Nike\u2019s Basketball Senior Footwear Designer. \u201cOn the outside, it looks like a classic, but on the inside the engine is really a modern-day performance basketball shoe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the unseen details inside the shoe include a 14-millimeter Zoom bag in the heel, Cushlon 2.0 foam midsole, and a rigid TPU sidewall for lateral stability. For traction, there is siping along the bottom of the shoe to match the herringbone pattern to help with mobility and flexibility in the forefoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s obviously something that I was knocking on their door about for years prior, but right now, it’s the right time.<\/p>\nDevin Booker<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Technical performance details aside, you can\u2019t have a sneaker called the Book 1 without rich storytelling. Some of that comes through in the aesthetics of the shoe, but also in its early teases online from the player himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Booker took a restomod approach to promoting the Book 1\u2019s debut too by shooting his own teaser on a Sony Hi8 camcorder, where he documented showing a sample of the shoe to everyone from rapper J. Cole to Nike co-founder Phil Knight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He felt inspired after he picked up the final sample from Nike WHQ and wanted to create content the mirrored the excitement original Nike basketball ads gave him growing up in the late \u201890s and early \u201800s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou got a feeling when you watched those commercials and those videos,\u201d the Phoenix Sun said. \u201cYour heart rate would go up and you felt like you were a part of that player\u2019s journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, Booker talks about his own journey to the release of his first signature sneaker, how Drake<\/a> was the first one outside of him to get a pair, and why the Nike Book 1 is more than just a basketball shoe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You had one of the most unique ways of teasing a shoe before it was originally unveiled. Was that video always part of the rollout plan or was it something you kind of just did on your own?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devin Booker: <\/strong>A little bit of both. That was a week\u2019s amount of time after I had just left campus and it was my first time having the shoe in hand. So a lot of what was captured in it was natural and authentic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just wanted to bring it to my peers and people that I’m inspired by. You see guys like J. Cole, Chris Gibbs, and Drake in the video and that was kind of like a focus group for me. I have a high respect for those guys and I wanted to run it by ’em, see how they felt about the shoe, and capture their initial reactions before the world got to see it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did you shoot that all yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DB<\/strong>: Yeah and I\u2019d just hand whoever was next to me the camera so they can capture too. I bring a Sony Hi8 video camera with me pretty much everywhere I go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the big parts of the video was Drake wearing it on stage. Was that something that was coordinated or was it something he organically did after seeing the shoe?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DB<\/strong>: It had to be coordinated because besides my pair, that’s the first pair that ever got out. We probably had a month\u2019s notice to make it in Drake\u2019s size, so shout out to these guys at Nike. They turned it around quick enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drake originally saw it at an open gym of mine where I was wearing the all black pair and he was like, \u2018Yo, I need to wear those on stage.\u2019 And of course, I was thinking the same thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he was going to do it, but it wasn\u2019t until he actually came up in the set with them on\u2014that was the moment where it really struck me.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A post shared by Book (@dbook)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n