The 2026 NBA and WNBA season marks a new record for basketball footwear: 33 athletes now hold signature shoe deals across 16 sportswear brands. Both numbers are the highest in the category's history.
Five athletes joined the signature tier this year. Angel Reese signed with Reebok — one of the most commercially significant WNBA signatures in years, and a signal of where the league's marketing investment is flowing. Jacy Sheldon's deal with Holo represents one of the smaller, design-forward independents breaking into the space. Joel Embiid's Skechers deal — still one of the more unexpected alignments in the league — has officially reached signature status. JuJu Watkins signed with Nike, a deal that reflects where the brand sees the next generation of women's basketball: capable of driving signature commercial success without needing to wait for the WNBA's broader market to catch up. And Tyrese Haliburton's PUMA deal, led by designer Salehe Bembury, is the most design-forward new signature of the group — a direct play at making a basketball shoe that can compete as a lifestyle silhouette from day one.
The departures are equally telling. Zion Williamson's Jordan Brand line was discontinued — one of the more culturally visible exits given the investment Jordan put into Williamson's brand potential. Zion's signature shoes never hit the crossover commercial targets the brand needed. It's a reminder that the signature shoe market still runs on performance credibility as much as cultural heat.
The brands now competing in the signature space include Nike, Jordan Brand, adidas, PUMA, New Balance, Reebok, Under Armour, Skechers, Holo, and others. That's a meaningful shift from even five years ago when Nike and Jordan Brand held a near-monopoly on meaningful basketball signatures. The expansion of viable brands creates real competition for the next generation of Jordan-level commercial athletes.
The design language across the category is moving toward what Hypebeast described as "sharp geometry and sculpted forms" — a reaction against the maximalist chunky aesthetic that dominated the early 2020s. Designer-led signatures, the kind Haliburton is pursuing with Bembury, signal where the category's cultural ambition is headed: basketball shoes that want to be taken seriously beyond the court, by people who never watch a game.
Thirty-three signatures. Sixteen brands. The competition for the next Jordan is more open than it's been in decades.
Not every marquee name is on that list. Paige Bueckers has no signature model; her Nike identity runs through player editions of a team shoe, most recently the GT Cut 4 "Shirley Buckets," which reached a general release at $210.
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