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How often do basketball players change shoes
Avoid Foot and Ankle Problems: Replace Worn Basketball Shoes
Too many basketball players overlook the importance of buying a durable and high-quality pair of basketball shoes, which is astounding when you consider how much time they spend pounding their feet into the ground. Bad shoes can lead not only to foot and ankle problems, but leg, hip, and even back pain as well. That's because alignment begins with your feet and moves up to influence the rest of your body. In time, the stress to a certain soft tissue or bone structure will create a fatigue injury which then renders the player unable to participate in his or her sport.
The average high school basketball player can greatly decrease his/her incidence of overuse injury by simply replacing his/her basketball shoes frequently, said Michael Lowe, DPM, team podiatrist of the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association. Dr. Lowe presented a study which showed that the average high school basketball player will utilize only one pair of new basketball shoes per season. Dr. Lowe recommends that the basketball shoe be changed monthly during the season. This has been found to greatly decrease the rate of injury to professional players, to the point that they will often replace shoe gear every two to three days or games.
The use of proper shoe gear has a strong relationship to the performance and stability of foot function within the shoe. Those shoes which compliment foot requirements for stability, flexibility and shock absorption, can greatly aid in the dissemination of stress to foot and leg structure. The amount of stress applied to the shoe gear before replacement with a new shoe also has a profound influence upon protecting the athlete. Most runners are encouraged to replace shoe gear every 350 -500 miles depending upon the size of the runner and his or her running environment. The same should be true of the basketball player. The average runner will spend about 66 hours in running to accumulate 500 miles on a pair of shoes (8 minute per mile pace times 500 miles). The average high school or collegiate athlete will work out easily 72 hours per month. Basketball shoes are now made of the same types of materials, i.e. eva or polyurethane midsole and a harder outer sole material. These materials all have a fatigue factor which greatly influences function of foot and stress delivered to bone and soft tissue structures. Players in the NBA will rarely use a basketball shoe for longer than 7-10 days before replacing it with a new pair of shoes.
A positive secondary by-product of frequent shoe change is that of a protective influence of shoe gear to foot and ankle stability to external forces. As the shoe is worn over hours of use the leather uppers slowly begin to stretch to the rotational forces applied. Also the midsole material slowly deforms or compresses to repetitive ballistic starting and stopping of play. As these external changes to the shoe continue the rotational movement of the foot within the shoe slowly increases in range of motion. Therefore it can be seen that with newer shoe usage, there will be fewer inversion injuries as compared to injuries due to the lack of support from worn and stretched shoe gear materials which lack the integrity to decelerate foot rotational movement beyond normal positioning.
The use of a high top basketball shoe is still one of the best means for protecting the ankle from inversion sprains. NBA players choose a wide variety of shoe gear styles to play in; 68% of the players utilize a high top shoe, 15% utilize a 3/4 top shoe, and only 10% will use a low top basketball shoe for regular play. Your choice will be tempered by what is available and what properly fits.
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Do NBA players get new shoes every game? – Basketball Noise
Growing up I was allowed one new pair of basketball shoes per season (check out the latest range of Nike Basketball Trainers). I used to have a very strict rotation. New pair at the start of the season were strictly for games only, last seasons game pair were now for training. Last season’s training pair now got relegated to outside courts and general use. I am definitely not an NBA player though.
Do NBA players get new shoes every game? The simple answer to this is yes, if they want them. Most NBA players will wear a pair of shoes between 4 and 20 games. With a few claiming to wear them until they break down.
That’s not the whole story though. Who pays for the shoes? Why do they change shoes so often and most importantly – why don’t they constantly have blisters from breaking in new shoes like the rest of us?
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How often do NBA players change their shoes, how and why?
Firstly, let’s cover off the different tiers of NBA player and their relation to shoe deals. We’ve got the Superstars, Lebron, KD, Curry, Kyrie, Giannis etc. They will typically have signature shoes. Created by a brand for them, with their input and sold using their name. This could net them as much as $30million a season, and all the free shoes and merchandise they could ever need. It’s said that Lebron’s total deal with Nike will earn him more than $1billion before all is said and done. Then we have the Allstars, Towns, Conley, Simmons – usually up and commers that haven’t quite reached the heady heights of earning their own shoe. Sometimes it’s to do with market size, Mike Conley has been one of the best in the game for some time now. These players will have shoe deals, they’ll get paid to represent a specific brand and be supplied with all the shoes they need! It won’t be in the 10’s of millions though. A typical draft lottery pick will bring in between $200k – 700k a year on their first shoe contract. Below that there are the rest of the league. They won’t necessarily be paid for representing a certain brand, but will most likely have a shoe deal that allows them access to shoes whenever they want them. Some interesting people to note here are Michael Jordan – the highest shoe deal earner, bringing in almost 4 times what Lebron does, with a figure north of $100 million a year. Matthew Dellavedova – his status as an international brand has netted him his own signature shoe, when arguably better players don’t have one. Last but not least, Lonzo Ball. Infamously spurning the big brands to sign a shoe deal with his families “Big Baller Brand”. The jury is still out on the success of this.
Now we understand the tiers a little bit, we can look at how many pairs of shoes players will go through in a season. Recently the Denver Nuggets kit manager stated that on average each player will use approximately 50 pairs of shoes for an 82 game season.
Copyright: twitter.com/brkicks
That’s a minuscule 1 and a half games a pair. So what drives this need to change shoes so regularly? There are many reasons. Some players say it’s purely for comfort and performance, after all they are the elite in the game and get paid millions to perform at peak levels night after night, comfy, protected feet and trust the shoe is going to grip when they cut is a no brainer request for these guys. Others do it for charitable, political and community reasons. Often wearing shoes specifically designed to give a political or personal message off, raise awareness or money for charity. Often they like to hand them out signed to local kids after the game. Rising Denver star Jamal Murray will often take to social media in the lead up to a game and ask fans to decide what kicks he will wear next game. All of this builds profile, drives interest in the product and makes money for all involved. Custom designed shoes for NBA players are becoming big business. Karl Anthony Towns had a pair of Nike re-worked for a Halloween game to show Jason from the “Friday 13th” movies brandishing the Nike swoosh like a blood stained machete. You can’t buy these in the shops, they were designed by a rising LA artist who goes by the name @kickstradomis on social media. So with almost unlimited resource and every reason to wear a new pair of shoes every game, it’s no wonder many NBA players do.
Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images Do NBA players wear the same shoes sold in stores?
A recent round table interview of several NBA players found that Anderson Varejao was most likely to wear his shoes the longest. Claiming to wear them for 20-25 games until they started to wear down. He put this down to his upbringing and not having the luxury of changing his shoes that often. But while some players like Varejao clearly want to break them in and get them comfy, many more players say it goes the other way. Matt Barnes has said he wears his for 2 or 3 games before they start to feel uncomfortable, so why is this? How come NBA players shoes seem to work the opposite way to the ones we buy in shops?
The majority of players will be custom fitted for their shoes. They will attend a sports science lab and be put through their paces, asked questions about how they like the shoe to feel and it will be perfectly moulded for them. They won’t have to do this every time, once the work is done each pair can be made so they fit the player perfectly out of the box. A luxury few casual players could ever dream of. Nike and Under Armour are two brands who famously have high end facilities where they ensure their athletes are looked after so that the shoes they wear on the court enhance both their style and performance. Fans lucky enough to receive game worn shoes from NBA players will often comment on how different they feel to the same shoe purchased from the store. Given all this, if you were an NBA player, wouldn’t you wear a box fresh pair of custom designed shoes every time you set foot on the hardwood? If like us you are not a NBA player but want to keep you shoes fresh we would recommend getting the Sneaker Lab Basic Shoe Care Kit, to ensure you can make your basketball shoes last longer.
Do NBA players wear another players Signature shoe?
Yes, this is very common. Although it would be custom fitted and sometimes designed for the player actually wearing it.
What active player makes the most money from their shoe deal?
Lebron James is signed with Nike and earns over $30million a year from the deal.
When is it time to change your running shoes?
How do you know when it's time to change your running shoes?
The time when sports shoes should be replaced depends on the amount of use, signs of wear and age of the shoes. The three main components of athletic shoes that can wear and break are the outsole, the insole, and the heel counter.
OUTER SOLE The outsole material consists of carbon rubber, which should be very resistant to abrasion. On some sneakers, even more durable and resilient rubber is used on the heel of the shoe, since this is where the greatest load occurs. If the outsole is worn through or has a difference of more than 4mm from one side of the heel to the other, the running shoe should be replaced.
INSOLES The midsole is usually made of foam materials: ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), polyurethane (PU) or a combination of these two materials. The midsole is designed to absorb shock, and in some models also serves to control excessive movement of the foot. After a certain amount of repetitive use, the outsole won't absorb shock and control the foot as well as it did when the shoes were new. In some cases, the sole deforms and compresses unevenly, which can lead to foot deformity and injury.
The inner sole should be considered worn:
After 500-700 km of running or walking. Consider your weight and height. Heavy athletes should change their running shoes faster, after 500 km.
After 45-60 hours of basketball, aerobics or tennis.
Has unevenness when placed on a flat surface.
Visible creases and folds are visible.
Basketball shoes are also made from ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA), which loses its rebound qualities over time. Let's compare the game of basketball with running. A runner will spend about 60 hours on a run of 800 km. In typical basketball training, an athlete trains for 3 hours a day, 6 times a week. Accordingly, shoes will be used for more than 60 hours per month. Therefore, basketball shoes should be replaced every month.
HEEL BACK The shoe's heel counter helps keep the heel on top of the sole and prevents excessive heel movement. The heel counter should be considered broken when it becomes movable when compressed from side to side, or there is a deviation to the side when the shoe is viewed from behind.
Even if not actively used, the shoes can wear out. Depending on the conditions in which they are stored. The outsole, insole, and some upper materials may dry out and not function optimally. Therefore, it is best to replace sports shoes that are more than one year old, whether worn or not.
The most common injuries associated with running shoes that have not been replaced on time are sprained ankles, heel spurs, plantar fasciitis, and stress fractures. Therefore, changing shoes is a relatively cheap investment in preventive medicine.
Do not skimp on the timely replacement of sneakers, take care of your health!
How the NBA shoe market works: Doncic in Jordan, Converse took Shay, Embiid has personal sneakers - PRO Basketball - Blogs
Millions of dollars for scented feet in branded sneakers.
Before the 2019 draft, Zion signed the biggest shoe contract in NBA history for a rookie. The Jordan brand forked out for a five-year, $75 million deal. Before leaving for Disney World, Shay Gilges-Alexander signed a multi-year deal with shoemaker Converse, joining Draymond Green and Kelly Oubre. This is a direct consequence of the agreement between the NBA and Adidas that expired in the 2017/18 season, after which Nike became the league's brand.
Two years ago, the NBA lifted restrictions on shoe colors, hundreds of stylized sneakers were painted on the floor, and Fila, Puma, New Balance and 361 Degrees returned to the game in addition to Converse. In the NBA, only elite basketball players earn tons of dollars on sneakers. In 2020, only 17 players are releasing their own line of shoes, while the Jordan brand is represented by 27 people. Kawhi Leonard made a measly $500,000 a year playing in the Jordans, while Zion, with zero matches, got 30 times more.
How does it work? We drove to understand:
Who dominates the market
Nike, Nike and Nike. Collaborations with Jordan, LeBron, Durant and Kobe have won a large part of the market for the manufacturer. Almost 70% of the players in the league squeak their Nikes. While Adidas is losing 7.3% after leaving the NBA, Puma, Chinese Anta and Li-Ning and old-school manufacturers take its share and money.
How accurate are these statistics?
Look at your feet and write what is on them. Forces, shiny Kobes or wanked curry parquet? All my life I run only in Hyperdunks. Nike has covered the NBA in a thick watermelon rind, and small brands are picking holes in it and sucking money juice in small sips.
What contracts manufacturers offer
Free agents
Basketball players can wear any shoe and not sign a contract with a brand. Models of sneakers can be changed at least every time-out. In 2015, John Wall became a free agent, turning down an 8-year $66 million deal with Adidas because the Germans offered the lonely Harden $200 million over 13 years and his own shoe collection. A resentful Wall ran for free for two years before returning to Adidas on a 5-year, $25 million deal.0005
Outfit Contract
Manufacturers offer a Outfit Contract to most players. This is such a free bonus for being in the body of the NBA or compensation for high growth. Basketball players do not receive money, but they have an annual deposit in the company store for sneakers and clothes. The base deposit is $25,000 and, like the contract, it expires before October 1st. Such agreements are made by players with a burning can under their ass or big men who are unable to sell sneakers.
Cash contracts
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Brands are willing to pay money for the opportunity to put shoes on promising and star players, but in a very limited amount. There are from 70 to 100 such players in the NBA. At the minimum agreement, the basketball player receives an average of a fixed $250,000 per year, at the maximum - $2.5 million. In addition to the fixed part, star players receive bonuses, a deposit for equipment and individual colors for their favorite sneaker models.
Nike awards personal colors to All-Star Game players and top draft picks who partner with the brand. Jordan for its "roster" makes gold inserts in case of victory in the championship. Zion, Tatum and Rui Hachimura will appear in individual colors at Disney World.
Morant, Tatum, Adebayo and 14 more players under 25 who will blow up the end of the season in Orlando
Agreements expire before the start of the season (until October 1st). The player can be offered an extension in the spring, but if rejected, he becomes a restricted free agent. 90 days before the expiration of the agreement, basketball players begin to negotiate with other brands. The "owner" has the right to interrupt the competitor's offer within 10 days. This happened to Steph Curry in 2013. After a 4-year agreement with Nike, the player was offered to become the star of Under Armor. Nike wanted to outbid UA, but Curry himself wanted to be the foot of a new shoe franchise.
Exclusive Agreement
There are three ways to own your own sneaker line: go by the name Ball, start your own company, or become an NBA superstar. Under an exclusive agreement, basketball players receive $5 million - $15 million a year fixed, various bonuses and a percentage of the sale of their collection.
Manufacturers assign a team of designers and marketers to exclusive players, and the magic begins. The line is updated every few years, exclusive players ride promo tours and dress less-star NBA representatives. In 2020, 17 players have the right to own a collection of sneakers:
Nike : LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Paul George, Giannis Antetokounmpo
Adidas : James Harden, Damian Lillard, Derrick Rose, Donovan Mitchell
Under Armor : Steph Curry, Joel Embiid
Jordan Brand : Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul
New Balance : Kawhi Leonard
Anta : Clay Thompson
K8iros : Spencer Dinwiddy
Big Baller Brand : Lonzo Ball
What bonuses are in the contract
Players rush to the court not only because of their great love for basketball. Any bonus or penalty can be added to their brand agreement. If the amount of the club contract is limited by the salary cap, then the shoe agreement is only the creativity of the basketball agent and the shoe manufacturer. Therefore, the exact earnings of the player for appearing in branded sneakers cannot be named.
Incentives can be attached to any individual indicator: the number of matches played, the average number of points, minutes on the court. Players are rewarded for getting into the symbolic teams and the All-Star Game ($300,000). Any individually won trophy like Defensive Player of the Year or Rookie of the Year has a price. Brands tie payouts to wins, playoffs and finals, and deprive players of money for injuries, poor performance, and being in unprofitable cities (hello Sacramento).
How to get a contract for shoes
Be a star student
Schoolchildren barely picking up the ball get on the radar of shoe giants. Manufacturers arrange branded tournaments and training camps for children. State storm? - you're in the piggy bank. Nike, Adidas and Under Armor are working at all levels of basketball America, pushing prime teenagers into the universities they sponsor.
Back in the 70s, Nike was doing some shady dealings at Georgetown and Nevada Universities, when they bashed coaches for wearing sneakers on their students' feet. University of North Carolina to get Nike 90 million sponsorship for 10 years, and some coaches - 300 thousand a year. How many university prospects will go to the NBA with a different brand after this? No response required.
Have a chatty agent
Even if you're Zion Williamson, you need an agent before the draft. Details of shoe contracts are not published in open form, so only “the insider” can find out the price level and competitive offers. It's unlikely that Jordan himself offered Zion $15 million a year. Agent Lloyd Frischer stepped in, having already made deals for Embiid (Under Armour), Mitchell (Adidas), George (Nike), Kuzma (Puma) and Wade (Li-Ning - for life).
Shoe manufacturers are playing roulette before the draft. There is a chance to flood the top prospect with millions and freeze the money for 5 years (hello Andrew Wiggins with a pledge of $180 million). Or you can view a future star and see how a competitor returns capital with minimal investment. The agent's job is to push his prospect to the maximum agreement before the player fails among the adult uncles. Therefore, a rookie's shoe deal often becomes the biggest shoe deal of his career.
Have balls of steel
Brands quickly snap up hot prospects, and on draft night they eat cold pies, glancing at their numbers and clubs. Few prospects can turn down all offers like Lillard and go with balls of steel to beat the price in the Summer League. In 2012, the 6th pick won the MVP tournament and hired an agent for LeBron and Durant. Lillard signed a multi-year deal with Adidas, which two years later turned into a $100 million deal and his own sneaker collection.
Fit into Puma
If it's really tight with offers from manufacturers, you can fit into Puma. In 2018, the company decided to bet on all the roulette numbers and signed five players from the first round of the draft to its roster: the best picks - Deandre Ayton and Marvin Bagley, and the middle ones - Kevin Knox, Michael Porter and Zaire Smith. Meanwhile, the third and fifth picks, Luka Doncic and Trae Young, slipped past the Panthers. A year later, the brand signed prospects RJ Barrett and Kevin Porter and lured Marcus Smart and Kyle Kuzma. Kuzma now earns twice as much for the shoes as he did with the Lakers.
Most expensive rookie contracts in NBA history
Zion Williamson - Jordan Brand / 5 years / $75M
LeBron James - Nike / 7 years old / $87 million
Kevin Durant - Nike / 7 years / $60M
Allen Iverson - Reebok / 10 years / $60 million
Vince Carter - Puma / 10 years / $50 million
Carmelo Anthony - Jordan Brand / 6 years / $40 million
Grant Hill - Fila / 5 years / ~$30m
John Wall - Reebok / 5 years / $25 million
Ben Simmons - Nike / 5 years / $13-15M
Marvin Bagley - Puma / 5 years / $12 million
Become an NBA star
To keep a rookie's shoe contract from becoming the best in a basketball player's career, you have to achieve something in the league. Marvin Bagley's contract is one of the ten most expensive, but Puma is unlikely to want to renew it. An example of a player turned superstar is Kawhi Leonard. After the 2011 draft, Leonard signed a contract with Jordan for $500,000 a year. By the fall of 2018, the best defender in the league became crowded. After playing a season as a shoe free agent, Kawai went on to build an empire with New Balance: $22 million over 4 years and his own line of shoes.
LeBron vs Kawhi, Phil will fly and Portland will rake. Breaking down the 12 most important NBA restart matches In December, they were joined by Luka Doncic, who started in the NBA without a sneaker contract. Now he's on his way to Disney World with a personalized Jumpman Diamond Low paint job.
Joel Embiid, like all players in his position, came out of the 2017 draft as another bust in the shoe market with a minimal agreement from Adidas, and in 2018 signed an agreement with Under Armor, becoming the highest paid big man.
The average high school or collegiate athlete will work out easily 72 hours per month. Basketball shoes are now made of the same types of materials, i.e. eva or polyurethane midsole and a harder outer sole material. These materials all have a fatigue factor which greatly influences function of foot and stress delivered to bone and soft tissue structures. Players in the NBA will rarely use a basketball shoe for longer than 7-10 days before replacing it with a new pair of shoes. 
Therefore it can be seen that with newer shoe usage, there will be fewer inversion injuries as compared to injuries due to the lack of support from worn and stretched shoe gear materials which lack the integrity to decelerate foot rotational movement beyond normal positioning. 
I used to have a very strict rotation. New pair at the start of the season were strictly for games only, last seasons game pair were now for training. Last season’s training pair now got relegated to outside courts and general use. I am definitely not an NBA player though. 
We’ve got the Superstars, Lebron, KD, Curry, Kyrie, Giannis etc. They will typically have signature shoes. Created by a brand for them, with their input and sold using their name. This could net them as much as $30million a season, and all the free shoes and merchandise they could ever need. It’s said that Lebron’s total deal with Nike will earn him more than $1billion before all is said and done. Then we have the Allstars, Towns, Conley, Simmons – usually up and commers that haven’t quite reached the heady heights of earning their own shoe. Sometimes it’s to do with market size, Mike Conley has been one of the best in the game for some time now. These players will have shoe deals, they’ll get paid to represent a specific brand and be supplied with all the shoes they need! It won’t be in the 10’s of millions though. A typical draft lottery pick will bring in between $200k – 700k a year on their first shoe contract. Below that there are the rest of the league. They won’t necessarily be paid for representing a certain brand, but will most likely have a shoe deal that allows them access to shoes whenever they want them.
Some interesting people to note here are Michael Jordan – the highest shoe deal earner, bringing in almost 4 times what Lebron does, with a figure north of $100 million a year. Matthew Dellavedova – his status as an international brand has netted him his own signature shoe, when arguably better players don’t have one. Last but not least, Lonzo Ball. Infamously spurning the big brands to sign a shoe deal with his families “Big Baller Brand”. The jury is still out on the success of this. 
Others do it for charitable, political and community reasons. Often wearing shoes specifically designed to give a political or personal message off, raise awareness or money for charity. Often they like to hand them out signed to local kids after the game. Rising Denver star Jamal Murray will often take to social media in the lead up to a game and ask fans to decide what kicks he will wear next game. All of this builds profile, drives interest in the product and makes money for all involved. Custom designed shoes for NBA players are becoming big business. Karl Anthony Towns had a pair of Nike re-worked for a Halloween game to show Jason from the “Friday 13th” movies brandishing the Nike swoosh like a blood stained machete. You can’t buy these in the shops, they were designed by a rising LA artist who goes by the name @kickstradomis on social media. So with almost unlimited resource and every reason to wear a new pair of shoes every game, it’s no wonder many NBA players do. 
Claiming to wear them for 20-25 games until they started to wear down. He put this down to his upbringing and not having the luxury of changing his shoes that often. But while some players like Varejao clearly want to break them in and get them comfy, many more players say it goes the other way. Matt Barnes has said he wears his for 2 or 3 games before they start to feel uncomfortable, so why is this? How come NBA players shoes seem to work the opposite way to the ones we buy in shops? 
Fans lucky enough to receive game worn shoes from NBA players will often comment on how different they feel to the same shoe purchased from the store. Given all this, if you were an NBA player, wouldn’t you wear a box fresh pair of custom designed shoes every time you set foot on the hardwood? If like us you are not a NBA player but want to keep you shoes fresh we would recommend getting the Sneaker Lab Basic Shoe Care Kit, to ensure you can make your basketball shoes last longer.
The three main components of athletic shoes that can wear and break are the outsole, the insole, and the heel counter. 
The heel counter should be considered broken when it becomes movable when compressed from side to side, or there is a deviation to the side when the shoe is viewed from behind. 
In 2015, John Wall became a free agent, turning down an 8-year $66 million deal with Adidas because the Germans offered the lonely Harden $200 million over 13 years and his own shoe collection. A resentful Wall ran for free for two years before returning to Adidas on a 5-year, $25 million deal.0005 
There are from 70 to 100 such players in the NBA. At the minimum agreement, the basketball player receives an average of a fixed $250,000 per year, at the maximum - $2.5 million. In addition to the fixed part, star players receive bonuses, a deposit for equipment and individual colors for their favorite sneaker models. 
The "owner" has the right to interrupt the competitor's offer within 10 days. This happened to Steph Curry in 2013. After a 4-year agreement with Nike, the player was offered to become the star of Under Armor. Nike wanted to outbid UA, but Curry himself wanted to be the foot of a new shoe franchise. 
Any bonus or penalty can be added to their brand agreement. If the amount of the club contract is limited by the salary cap, then the shoe agreement is only the creativity of the basketball agent and the shoe manufacturer. Therefore, the exact earnings of the player for appearing in branded sneakers cannot be named. 
State storm? - you're in the piggy bank. Nike, Adidas and Under Armor are working at all levels of basketball America, pushing prime teenagers into the universities they sponsor. 
Marvin Bagley's contract is one of the ten most expensive, but Puma is unlikely to want to renew it. An example of a player turned superstar is Kawhi Leonard. After the 2011 draft, Leonard signed a contract with Jordan for $500,000 a year. By the fall of 2018, the best defender in the league became crowded. After playing a season as a shoe free agent, Kawai went on to build an empire with New Balance: $22 million over 4 years and his own line of shoes. 
