{"id":420874,"date":"2014-12-19T15:36:16","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T20:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/?p=420874"},"modified":"2019-01-03T10:54:41","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T15:54:41","slug":"kevin-durant-nike-pay-tribute-texas-icon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/kevin-durant-nike-pay-tribute-texas-icon\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant, Nike Pay Tribute to a Texas Icon"},"content":{"rendered":"
Back in October, the Nike KD 7 EXT “Pony Hair” made its way to the web while on display at the OK Soles sneaker show in Oklahoma City. \u00a0Immediately the shoe was dubbed the “Pony Hair” nickname because of the material on the upper, but knowing Nike, there is always a deeper meaning and a deeper story to any special release. \u00a0We all know the story of Kevin Durant playing for the University of Texas and how year after year he shows love to the Texas\u00a0Longhorns teams\u00a0and 40 Aces fans with “Texas” editions of his shoes, but does this KD 7 have a meaning\u00a0deeper than that?<\/p>\n
The nickname of the Nike KD 7 “Lone Star” popped up on foreign message boards describing the interwebs have been calling the Pony Hair 7s from jump. \u00a0Whether you are a frequent user of Google Translate or not, you can probably guess that Pony Hair and Lone Star don’t get swapped easily meaning that the story of the shoes is more than just a one-trick-pony (had to use the pun eventually).<\/p>\n
To the\u00a0eyes of many, the shoe is a gum-bottomed basketball shoe with hair all across the upper, but to someone from Texas,\u00a0even at first glance, the shoe represents much more. \u00a0The pattern of the upper is that of something iconic to our heritage and history even down to the branding-iron look of the logos on the shoe.<\/p>\n
Just yesterday Nike officially unveiled the Nike KD 7 with the official title being “Longhorn State”<\/strong>. \u00a0While to many this might seem like another nod to his alma mater,\u00a0let us look at some history, traditions, culture, and icons of the state where\u00a0Kevin Durant\u00a0played college hoops.<\/p>\n The old saying goes “everything is bigger in Texas” and to use that what Nike and Kevin Durant have put together with the Nike\u00a0KD 7 EXT “Longhorn State”<\/strong> is a Texas-sized tribute to the Lone Star State and one of its most celebrated icons.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What is an icon?<\/strong><\/p>\n Something that\u00a0I have seen first hand over my many years of sneakers as a consumer,\u00a0working in the business (March 30, 2001 was my first day\u00a0selling shoes\u00a0at the mall), and even more when I started writing about them is that Nike loves and celebrates icons.<\/p>\n Bill Bowerman’s quote “If You Have A Body You Are An Athlete”\n Often times we blog about these icons being\u00a0product based such as\u00a0a specific model of shoes, but what I have learned over the years that it is everything about the product that makes it iconic is far more than you can capture in a photo. It is the history behind the inspiration the designer had when making the initial sketch, the technological breakthrough and innovation in the manufacturing of even components of the shoe, and of course the athletes who wear it. \u00a0And by athletes, I am referring to Nike’s definition of an athlete by the famous words of Bill Bowerman, “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” \u00a0Everyone who wears that product has a hand in making it iconic.<\/p>\n To illustrate this, let us look at Nike’s first breakthrough basketball shoe – the Nike Air Force 1.<\/p>\n Nike poster featuring Moses Malone wearing Nike Air Force 1\n Great sports moments have happened in the shoe. \u00a0Moses Malone lead the 76ers to an NBA Championship in the Nike Air Force 1 is documented in sports history, but leading his people of Philadelphia to the promise land\u00a0of an NBA Championship alone didn’t make the Air Force 1 an icon. \u00a0Bruce Kilgore’s design of the shoes,\u00a0the technical innovation to create a breakthrough in basketball shoe cushioning, and Nike’s first full spread basketball shoe ads featuring the Original Six had a hand in it too, but even that doesn’t give it the iconic status.<\/p>\n Nike Air Force 1 Ad featuring the “Original Six” (1982)\n It was the people who bought the shoe, who played ball in them on the playground courts, who rocked them off the courts to live life in those shoes, and loved those shoes so much they requested the return of the shoes to their local retailer. \u00a0Had it not been for the repeated requests by customers at these stores, do you think the “three amigos” would have gotten together to make the gigantic purchase order to get the AF1 reproduced? \u00a0No.<\/p>\n Even after the shoe was brought back by the demands of the people, had it not been for the streets that bought the shoe color after color, month after month, and made the shoe part of their journey through life, it wouldn’t be where it is today.<\/p>\n