Kevin Durant And Artist Timothy Goodman Honor Brooklyn Community With Nike Collaboration

Birthed in the height of the pandemic and now coming to fruition a year following restrictive social distancing guidelines, the 40-year-old designer, artist, author and muralist’s latest work pays homage to the fortitude, strength and perseverance his adopted city has showcased since 2020. With droves of the financially able moving out from the confines of their suffocating apartment spaces, the narrative that New York was ‘dead’ peeved Goodman to no end. “There wasn’t enough conversation about the community who lives here, who can’t leave; the essential workers, the people who make this city tick all day every day,” Goodman tells Sneaker News.
 
 
Goodman better than anybody knew the state of the city and its so-called ‘slow death’. He was living amongst its vibrance every day as he continued to contribute to the local scenery through murals on once-bare walls and fully-painted Department of Sanitation trucks. So when it came time to construct and employ his signature design on the KD 15’s TPU panels, the feeling of total and complete expression was at the forefront of his mind after being cooped up for all those months.
 
 
Centered around a jet-black base, thick white line art and uplifting wording coats the entirety of the silhouette’s upper paneling in tandem with the mesh tongue construction and textured heel counter. Further channeling his personal appreciations, the latter’s contrasting black and white ensemble captures the 80’s film noir of Spike Lee’s run of Jordan commercials.
 
 
“DEDICATED”, “LOVE”, “HUSTLE” and “BROOKLYN” stand out almost immediately amidst the sea of arrows, hearts, locks, basketballs, fists, boomboxes and other detailing.

Mirroring the all-out effort above, further imagery wraps along the entirety of the midsole, an effort Goodman fought for to tell the silhouette’s story more cohesively. As an extension of Durant’s outreach to the community.
 
 
“My thing is like, I want to try to get the art on everything. Any possible surface, any possible real estate I want to try to wrap,” Goodman said. “At first, it wasn’t about the sole. Then when I found out we could get art all on the sole, that was a big move because then it really became a different kind of shoe.”
 
 
Understanding his spontaneous and free-flowing approach, “they (Nike) really let me do my thing man. It was a really rare, special occurrence.” Mocking up over 150 different colorways and titular combinations, Goodman finally settled on three final propositions. The one we see below – anchored by “Peach Cream”, vibrant purple and mint green – a Washington Bullets-inspired red/white/blue outfit and an 80’s aesthetic clothed in purple/gold/maroon.
 
 
There’s an effortless poetry in Goodman’s latest tribute to The Mecca. His behavioral habit of impatience and ceaseless love for the community has galvanized into his first-ever artistic vision driven home on a sneaker silhouette.
 
 
And in the end, “I hope that they feel just the energy and the grit of New York and Brooklyn. To feel that camaraderie with the people here, that love, that vibe and energy is important. Everything else from there is a cherry on top,” Goodman said.
 
 
The Timothy Goodman x Nike KD 15 will release on December 9th for a retail price of $160.