Shoe Game: The Most Worn Shoes in the NBA this Season
The NBA Playoffs might be in full swing, but the number-crunchers are poring through the data to check the pulse of the league across the regular season, looking at everything from TV viewing figures to players’ PPG. But we recently also got the most important data for the fashion-conscious – the shoe data.
Sports Illustrated was among the media outlets publishing the most commonly worn shoe brands across the 2025-26 regular season, measuring each by minutes spent on the court. Here’s what players wore the most:
Nike Kobe 6 Protro — 71,312 minutes
Nike Kobe 5 Protro — 26,804
Nike Sabrina 3 — 26,125
Nike Kobe 4 Protro — 23,902
Nike KD18 — 21,833
Nike G.T. Cut 3 — 19,579
Nike Ja 3 — 19,246
Nike Book 1 — 15,266
Air Jordan 40 — 13,961
Nike Kobe 8 Protro — 11,669
A few things jump out immediately. The first is that, despite a brief lapse in relations around 2021, the deal between Nike and the Kobe Bryant estate is still yielding spectacular results. Nike Kobe shoes have been at the top of this list for the past several seasons, and the fact that four of the ten top shoes belong to the Lakers legend is a testament to his enduring appeal among NBA players. Around 130-140 players will wear Kobe-branded shoes in a typical season in recent years.
Steph Curry, once the face of Under Armour after a 13-year partnership, sports a pair of Kobe Protro shoes while warming up. Photo via https://x.com/NBAdoPovo/status/2002544117180735645/photo/1
The second thing that jumps out is the fact that Nike still holds absolute dominance in the NBA. Further down the list you might find shoes from Adidas, Puma, New Balance and Under Armour, but Nike holds about 70% of the feet of NBA athletes. A point to note is that Air Jordan is still owned by Nike, but it operates as an independent brand with full creative control.
Can Nike get the glory days back?
The choice of shoes is not going to impact your team’s NBA Playoffs odds or your MVP chances, yet players clearly put a lot of thought into it, and that filters down to fans and the broader basketball culture. Yet, it is not a golden bullet for a brand like Nike. The sports apparel company has struggled in recent years. Its stock is down 20% YTD at the time of writing, and it is down around 65% over the past five years. The reasons are varied: The company has lost market share (not just in basketball shoes) to rivals, and it has made some missteps from its c-suite.
However, its dominance in the NBA remains significant, albeit arguably not as influential outside of basketball. There is a wonderful piece written in GQ that you can find here. Published in 2015, the article highlights how the 1990s were the golden era for crossover between basketball, fashion, and hip-hop. Nike benefited so much from that era, backed by its revolutionary partnership with Michael Jordan. The company will watch the NBA Playoffs and Finals, knowing that its shoes are on the feet of most of the players, but it will also probably long for those halcyon days.
