Nick DePaula: How has the League’s history of footwear color guidelines for players evolved through the years?<\/strong><\/p>\nChristopher Arena: I started in 1994 in this position. Our group started looking at this stuff in the mid-90s. Back then, the rules were you had to have the majority of the shoe in black or white. 51% has always been the number that’s been thrown out. The basis of that was to create some form of team unity. As the years developed, around the early 2000s we integrated the color grey as one of the core colors. Black, white or grey. Not soon after that, we started to look at the All-Star Game as a vehicle where players could wear whatever colors might make sense. That might hook up with the All-Star uniform, which were red, white and blue back in the day, or other innovative colors that they might have on their plate.<\/p>\n
As we saw that take off, we started to get into what we call our \u201cevent policy\u201d for footwear. We have different events and platforms that the league goes through each season. We said, \u201cLets align these events with the colors of shoes.\u201d For Halloween, you can wear orange shoes or orange and black. Somewhere around 2011 and 2012, we also had a breakthrough and said, \u201cInstead of just black, white and grey, you can do any color that matches your team uniform, in any percentage that you want.\u201d<\/p>\n
The unity wasn’t necessarily that we were all 51% of one color, the unity is that the players are all matching their team identity. With the Knicks, for example, you might have one player in predominantly orange, one in blue, one in white and one in a combination of blue, orange and white \u2013 but it all hooks to the uniform. There’s unity in color.<\/p>\n
We started to see more innovation from the footwear companies in terms of how they’re applying the colors to match up with the uniforms. Also, the team can still have their own policy, above and beyond our policy. Or the players may institute their own rule and all wear the same color, whether that’s because of a superstition or whatever else.<\/p>\n
The only other wrinkle to that, is more recently, we’ve expanded the event footwear to say, \u201cListen, we’re not going to be the judge or jury on what designates a Halloween shoe.\u201d Meaning, I don’t know that Halloween is just black or orange. Zombies, spiders and ghosts are related to Halloween, and all of those things aren’t necessarily orange. We cast a big net over that and said, \u201cGo have some fun with the theme for Halloween.\u201d We still have the artwork sent through to our group to review them. We still have to make sure that there are no sharp protruding objects or reflective elements. Safety is still the number one priority for our players. Beyond that, just making sure that the colors work within our guidelines.<\/p>\n
NDP: What’s the lead time that somebody would need to submit a shoe in order to wear it?<\/strong><\/p>\nCA: We’ll review shoes by early August for the first half of the season, which is prior to All-Star Weekend. Then, by early December for the second half of the season. That being said, we understand the footwear industry and a lot of these shoes are pre-built far in advance, but oftentimes there might be some shoes that come up as a one-off, and we’re certainly open to take those and review them accordingly. The footwear companies are all very compliant and understand the rules. They work with us and some are partners of ours, and some are on the periphery. They all get it and understand, and they welcome the freedom that we’ve been able to institute along the way.<\/p>\n