The release of the film Air earlier this year, a movie that chronicles the parallel ascent of Nike and Michael Jordan, got me thinking of the evolution of basketball shoes. Being a basketball card collector since the 1969 Topps “Tall Boys” were issued, and noticing every nuance of these cardboard gems over the decades, I began tracking the appearances of different styles of sneakers on cards.
It’s an interesting ride through the basketball time machine and the evolution of footwear that goes along with it.
We’ll focus mostly on the 1957 Topps through 1986 Fleer basketball sets as our bookends for our footwear journey, so lace ‘em up and follow me down the hardwood path from Cousy to Jordan.
As I started going through my collection, it was surprising to see how many basketball cards do not have shoes pictured. So many of the cards are portraits of the players, or closer up poses or game action of the players, and the shoes the player is wearing often didn’t make the editor’s cut. There’s still plenty to take in, though.
1950-1969 The Early Years
“Pros & Cons”
Converse All-Stars, later known as “Chuck Taylor’s”, had a monopoly on the market during the early years as the NBA was getting off the ground. Converse Rubber Shoe Company was founded in 1908 in Malden, Massachusetts. But it wasn’t until an Indiana native and early basketball player named Chuck Taylor joined the company in the 1920s as a salesman and ambassador that Converse became the gold standard for basketball shoes for decades to come. Taylor kept evangelizing his love of basketball and Converse shoes until his death in 1969. Of course, the Chuck Taylor canvas shoes remain extremely popular today for streetwear and fashion, but you never see this model worn on the basketball court.
During 1950s and 60s when Converse was the dominant brand, not much thought was given to style or alternatives. It was canvas, either high tops or low cuts, either black or white. Period. Every once in a while, a player would get radical and wear colored shoe laces, typically tied to his team’s colors. The Boston Celtics became the first team to standardize on wearing black gym shoes. The white canvas shoes tended to show stains from sweat and wear. The black ones didn’t. Celtics Coach and influencer Red Auerbach was way ahead of his time on aesthetics, practicality and economics. Keep in mind the players were not switching out to new shoes every game like LeBron James and Stephen Curry likely do now.
Bob Cousy’s iconic 1957 Topps card shows him in his black Converse high tops. Few players from that era were as impactful as “The Houdini of the Hardwood”, Cooz, and the other players in the background of his card are sporting the same style.
Cousy’s 1961 Fleer “In Action” card shows him laying one in wearing his black high tops.
Other basketball cards (issued later) capture players with images from that era in Converse shoes. Good examples are the 1977-79 Sportscaster Bob Pettit and Elgin Baylor cards, where every player is wearing bland white shoes.
The 1981 TCMA basketball cards of Rick Barry, Dave Bing and Bill Sharman all have some well-worn canvas Converse on display.
Slow Change
1969 to 1983: “Earning Your Stripes”
In the late 1960s, another shoe manufacturer, adidas, started to appear on the feet of NBA and ABA players. Not only were they more stylish with their three “racing stripes” on the side, but they were made of a more sturdy rubber and leather, rather than the more flimsy canvas with rubber soles. Plus the leather didn’t show the wear or sweat that canvas shoes did. adidas also had a sharp suede model in various colors.
Adi Dassler (Adi-Das… get it?) and his brother Rudolf Dassler got started in 1920s Germany and developed groundbreaking track shoes, including cleats for Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. In their early years they also provided footwear for soccer clubs. Eventually the brothers went their separate ways, with Adi leading adidas and Rudolf founding Puma (more on that soon).
The first adidas shoes I spotted on basketball cards were the 1969 Topps Johnny Egan and Lucius Allen cards, with the adidas Superstars model on full display.
My buddies and I were aspiring young hoopers and collectors, so these two colorful cards opened our eyes to a new (shoe) world. We not only wanted to play well, but we wanted to look good doing it. The seed of mixing functionality with style in a basketball shoe was planted in our young minds. Little did we know what was ahead in the future with “sneaker heads” and an entire basketball shoe culture.
You can see several players wearing Adidas in the 1973-74 NBA Players Association postcard set, including some snazzy suede kicks on the feet of future Hall of Famer Spencer Haywood.
The incumbent, Converse, evolved, did some product development, and introduced some cool leather and suede styles of their own, best displayed on the 1971 Topps Jim McMillian, the 1973 Topps Bud Stallworth, and the 1976 Topps Lloyd Free cards, among many others.
Significant in the late 1970s was the introduction of the Julius Erving “Dr. J” leather model signature shoe, a hint of the future possibilities of a basketball shoe branded around a transcendent player. The Dr. J shoes are seen on his 1984 Star Company Dunk Contest card.
Puma (Rudolf Dassler), edged into the basketball market in the early 1970s, with John Baum sporting Puma shoes on his 1972 Topps card and introducing one of the first player signature shoes with the Walt Frazier “Clyde” suede model, blending game-use with off the court fashion. Clyde’s are seen on Frazier’s 1972 Topps All-Star card and these shoes remain available to this day.
In the early 1970s Pro-Keds also made their presence known, primarily with their unique suede styles and having star players like Nate Archibald and JoJo White wearing their brand. Archibald was sporting Pro-Keds in his record breaking 1972-73 season when he led the NBA in scoring and assists. Check out “Nate the Skate’s” 1973 and 1975 Topps cards to see the shoes, as well as the 1973 card of White.
Pro-Keds shrewdly signed Pete Maravich when he finished at LSU and joined the Atlanta Hawks in 1970. The Pistol appears to be wearing the brand he endorsed on the front of his 1972-73 Topps card.
The 1973-74 Topps basketball set was a breakthrough release as far as seeing a wide range of basketball shoes on basketball cards. Not coincidentally, Topps finally had the appropriate licensing with the NBA and ABA and there was much more freedom for the images that could be displayed on cards.
Like the variety of NBA champions from 1975 to 1979, there were some other shoe companies that grabbed a piece of the pie in that era.
Check out PONY shoes on Norm Van Lier’s 1977 Topps, Beta Bullets on Fred Brown’s 1979 Topps, and for a throwback look, check out Kevin Stacom’s old-school black low cut canvas Converse on his 1977 Topps card.
Swoosh: Clear the “Air” in 1984, Here Comes Nike
Noticeable by their absence so far in this story has been Nike. Founded in 1964 by Phil Knight, the company quietly built up as Blue Ribbon Sports in Oregon, making footwear for running and track and field. Adopting the name Nike in 1971, they began developing basketball shoes and Geoff Petrie, playing for the Portland Trailblazers not far from Nike headquarters, is believed to be the first NBA player to wear Nike “Blazer” shoes. Petrie is is wearing Nike shoes in his 1974 Topps card.
Even if the Nike bottom line didn’t reflect it, they were gaining followers in the basketball market in the 1970s, with their shoes and hoop-culture marketing including posters and in-store oversized photo cards. These included the iconic George Gervin “Iceman” image, the Paul Westphal “Goin’ Home” and Bobby Jones “Secretary of Defense” favorites, along with many other individual players and group shots like “Supreme Court” and “Jam Session.”
Of course, any Nike struggles in the basketball market vanished forever when, on the insistence of Sonny Vaccaro, they put all their eggs in one basket and signed Michael Jordan in 1984. This is all well documented in the “Air” film, so to avoid any spoiler alerts, we’ll leave it at that. The inaugural Air Jordans are best on display in Michael’s 1986 Fleer sticker card.
Suddenly, basketball shoes weren’t mostly for on-court wear, they were a style and even became a collectible, right alongside the basketball cards that were also bringing recognition to the brand, just as they’d done decades earlier.
The often flashy, multi-colored shoes today are ushering in a new era for fans and collectors in a now well-established market, but checking out the 20th century styles is another way to study and enjoy your basketball card collection.
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