Matt Varga At this point, it feels personal. Since his Nike Ja 3 was announced, Morant has bucked the traditional convention and cadence of the sneaker world, in which (typically) overseas leaks beget retailer shots which beget official brand imagery. Seemingly as soon as a sample touches the star point guard’s hands, he’s exerted carte blanche and fittingly leaped over each of those prerequisite steps, providing fans and media alike with far-ahead previews of what he and the Swoosh have in store.
This latest previewed two-pack comes less than a month after he let loose what was expected to be the full Spring/Summer slate for his signature, one that showcased some additional experimentation with a model that was already risk-taking enough on a compositional level. There, stacked gradients of the “At Dawn” and the united profile of a teal/red presented new blocking opportunities.
The latter is especially fitting with the shoes at hand, as a futuristic metallic blue breaks away from the two-tone formula that the Ja 3 has largely attended to, further breaking new ground with the aforementioned sheen that envelops its upper and a tumbled leather Swoosh. If you’re reading between the lines, the return of the “A” print next to the vertical Swoosh could be an indication that these tie to a Swoosh tournament; so far, that touch has only been used on the “Light Show,” an EYBL exclusive, and the “NY v. NY.” The green/purple colorway, the other one of the two “leaked” by Morant, keeps things closer to what we’ve seen so far, but an amoebic logo might hint at a deeper story.
Surely all of these points of intrigue will be clarified in the coming months, but for now, this is still some red meat for the Ja 3 fanbase. Check out individual shots below.
