The NBA is lifting its shoe color restrictions for the first time in 70 years to allow players to freely express themselves on the court, Sports Illustrated reported Wednesday.
For most of the NBA's history, footwear has been regulated to some degree but for the upcoming 2018-2019 season, players will be allowed to wear sneakers of any color.
The only restriction in place is to govern third-party logos, which require preapproval by the league, and while individual teams may still impose their own footwear rules and regulations, players can pretty much go wild.
For a large portion of the NBA's 72-years, sneakers of a team were restricted to being either 51 percent white or black, and could feature a minimal team color accent, ESPN noted.
Michael Jordan defied these rules when he wore black-and-red Air Jordan 1 sneakers during the 1984-85 season, and was promptly issued a warning letter that placed a ban on his sneakers.
It was only in the late 2000s when the rules began to change and players were permitted to wear sneakers aligning with their team colors.
"We had specific requests come through. Sometimes it was from a footwear company or sometimes a player via the team's equipment manager," said Christopher Arena, the NBA's VP of identity, outfitting, and equipment, according to Sole Collector. "This came at time when customizing shoes online through Adidas or Nike and other footwear manufacturers became possible. Many of the players have a pretty keen fashion sense, and they wanted to be more specific about their sneakers."
LeBron James has taken full advantage of the slackening rules by wearing over 30 different versions of the Nike LeBron 12 this season.
Off the court, the NBA star has been honored by sneaker artist Dominic Chambrone, also known as The Shoe Surgeon, who recreated a pair of LeBron 15s with "genuine crocodile skin" and then finished it off with a 24-karat gold coating, USA Today noted.
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