Boardroom sits down with the Orlando Magic star to talk about his Jordan Brand journey, including the upcoming drop of his own player-edition Heir pairs.
For Paolo Banchero, his interest in the sneaker game didn’t just start as a kid growing up in Seattle, as he was rising the ranks on the hoop scene. The Orlando Magic star was just as curious about the design and marketing side of the industry that his favorite players powered, dreaming of a path to make his own imprint one day.
“I like playing in different things, having different flavors, and being creative,” Banchero told Boardroom the week before the 2022 NBA Draft as he was deciding which brand to sign with. “When a brand sees that, they know I’m not going to be a guy that just puts on one shoe. For whatever brand I go to, from game to game, I’m going to wear different shoes and different colors.”
After being selected No. 1 overall later that week, the Magic’s new franchise forward signed on with Jordan Brand.
As promised, he’s been cooking up with Jordan’s team of designers each year since, as the headliner of the annual Air Jordan 37, 38, and 39 models and the only player in the NBA to design his own player-edition (PE) colorways of the brand’s Luka Dončić, Jayson Tatum, and Zion Williamson signature models.
“The freedom that they give me, to come up with ideas for PEs, they’re open to whatever I like and whatever I’m feeling,” Banchero now says. “They let me be myself.”
As the process has “gotten better every year,” he’s created more than a dozen pairs of exclusive editions since. This season, he’s launching his own PE sneaker for the first time at retail.
A bright “blue gaze” and neon “volt” edition of the Jordan Heir model — a unisex sneaker designed with insights from women’s basketball players — Banchero’s pair slated to release on Feb. 17 honors his middle school AAU team, Seattle Rotary, and the Seattle Boys & Girls Club where he came into his own as a player. Look for Banchero to lace up three different PEs of the Heir this season. In addition to the Rotary colorway, he also has tribute pairs on the way honoring his mother Rhonda’s prolific basketball career at the University of Washington, and his grandmother Sheila’s sense of style.
Ahead of launching his first player-edition sneaker at retail, Boardroom caught up with Banchero recently at The Michael Jordan Building on the Nike campus in Beaverton, Oregon.
Nick DePaula: Given your mom’s background in playing the game, what did you initially think when you heard about the Heir Series, a shoe inspired by the women’s game?
Paolo Banchero: When they first brought it to me, I was really interested in it right away. With the shoe being unisex, boys or girls are able to play in it and wear it. With my mom [having played,] I’m a huge advocate for women’s basketball. I grew up around women’s basketball and understand its importance and how big it is for women to feel included in the space.
NDP: What were you trying to express through the color and design on your PE that’s releasing?
PB: This color is a shout to the AAU club that I grew up playing with, Seattle Rotary, and the baby blue colors. I didn’t want it to be all baby blue, and I wanted one other color, like a bright green, that would pop out on the shoe. We landed on the Volt color, and I think it looks perfect, with the accents on the cage, how it pops behind the blue.
NDP: You first had that theme on a Luka 1 PE, which you gifted pairs of to all of the middle schoolers on the team.
PB: That was the first Rotary shoe that I did, and the more time that goes by, the more I like it even more. The color and the look — everything is so fire! I remember Luka coming up to me and actually complimenting me on the shoe. He said, ‘I like the PEs you did!’
NDP: Have you ever worn a Tatum against JT or a Luka against Luka? Or is that off limits?
PB: I always switch it up. Whenever I play Luka, I’ll wear the Tatums, and whenever I play JT, I’ll wear the Lukas or the 39s. That’s something I won’t do. I can’t be wearing Jayson’s while I’m guarding JT — he’d have the forever one up! [laughs]
NDP: What was the process like of creating your own logo, with the ‘PB’ and the ‘5?’
PB: That was a long process. That was honestly maybe, to me, the most annoying or frustrating process because every hooper dreams of having their own logo and shoe. Your logo is something that you can slap on clothes or whatever. I wanted a logo my rookie year. That was one of the things that I thought would take a couple months, but it took a couple years to finalize it. [laughs]
We went through a lot of stages and options and finally landed on this one. I feel like it’s perfect for how I wanted it to look. I wanted it to be sharp, be something that you can clearly make out to be my logo. Seeing it now on an actual Jordan shoe that I get to wear and play in is crazy. Not many guys can say that they have their own logo, and on a Jordan shoe at that.
NDP: You also have another Heir PE on the way inspired by your mom?
PB: It’s like a Husky purple / “Paolo Purple” — that’s what I call it now. [laughs] It’s always been one of my favorite colors, but once you wear a purple Draft suit, it’s always going to be attached to you for life. This is a shout to my mom and her Husky days being a huge women’s basketball star. Hopefully, a lot of women can wear this shoe and play in it.
NDP: I saw your mom was inducted into the UW Hall of Fame in 2004. At what age did you realize all of your mom’s achievements in basketball, and how did that inspire you?
PB: Probably at some point around being 10 or 11. Growing up, I just always remember people coming up to me and telling me how much of a beast my mom was. When I was a kid, I didn’t believe it until the first time that she took me to go see her Hall of Fame section at UW. I remember just being amazed, seeing all of the pictures of her playing, her uniform, and reading some of the articles and her stat lines. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, my mom really was serious.’
I never actually saw her play, but people don’t just say, ‘Your mom is a beast’ if she was average. I’ve had some people say some pretty crazy things about the player that she was, how dominant she was, and you got no choice but to believe the hype. It was just great having a mom that was looked at in that regard, as a legend in the city and for the University. There have been plenty of times when we were at a UW football or basketball game, and people come up to her to say how much they used to love watching her play and how much she inspired them. She was a role model for me early, for sure.
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NDP: Your mom also said she taught you the drop step. Is there another lesson or point of advice she was helpful with?
PB: I’d say my jump shot. She used to always tell me that I’ve got a broke jump shot growing up. [laughs] She’d be in the middle of practice coaching her team, and I’d be off shooting on the side hoops. I was the kid that wanted to do the fadeaway before the fundamentals, because I always was watching guys on TV. She was the one who always was humbling me, like, ‘You’re not there yet. You need to practice the right way before you start doing all the fancy moves.’
She was a big help for me, in terms of sharpening my skills and also learning how to go about working on my game and working out. There was a certain mentality to have about trying to improve at the fundamentals that, as a kid, you don’t fully understand. She was on me to master the basics before I would start doing the other stuff.
NDP: You also have a Heir PE inspired by your grandma — what can you share about that design?
PB: This is the “Sheila” and a shout to my grandma, my mom’s mom, and her fashion sense. I feel like I get a lot of it from her. My parents never really dressed super loud or fancy. But my grandma? Man! That’s why the shoe is so loud. You have leopard print, pink, purple, red, and green — cause that’s what her closet looked like.
She had a walk-in closet in her house. I used to go over and spend the night almost every weekend growing up. She had a nice walk-in closet with a jacuzzi. She was killing it! [laughs] I didn’t have that at home, so I’d always be wowed and check out her closet. I’d see all these leopard prints, zebra, red leather, and all these crazy clothes. I remember being so enamored by it as a kid. To this day, she wears crazy colors. Whenever my grandma sees me wear an outfit that’s a little louder, she’s always so proud and will say, ‘You look sharp! You look good!’
NDP: Your mom played ball, and your pops played football. How did you have that conversation with them that you were going to go the basketball route?
PB: It was a conversation that they had to come around on. Believe it or not, neither one of them wanted me to stop playing football. I was good at both, and I remember after my 8th grade year and going into High School, I didn’t want to play. I was about 6-6, and I was getting really tall. I had just gotten my first two scholarship offers from the University of Montana and University of Washington. I said, ‘OK, I think I want to hoop.’
I went to my parents and told them I didn’t want to play football, and they said, ‘No, you gotta play one year.’ I played one year, I was on Varsity, and we actually won the state championship. But I knew after that season I was done. By that time, I was 6-8, and it got to the point where they were watching me play basketball and realized, ‘You know what, he’s probably going to be pretty good. Maybe we should let him just hoop.’ It wasn’t an easy conversation at first. I didn’t want to play football, but they were insistent that I do at least one year. Then, they let me choose after that.
NDP: If you only play one year — it ain’t bad to go out a state champ.
PB: Man! It was an awesome experience. My high school is a pretty big powerhouse for football, so being a freshman on varsity, it’s something that I even still think about. My brother just won a state championship at the same school this year as a junior.
NDP: What sticks out so far for you as you think through your three seasons with Jordan Brand?
PB: Going to China [with Luka, Zion and Tatum] last summer, that was amazing. The brand hadn’t done a big trip out there since pre-COVID. The reception that we got from Chinese fans, everywhere we went, was crazy. I didn’t even know that I had that many Chinese fans, and they knew literally everything about me. Someone gave me a gift, and it was a book of my whole life, from my freshman year of high school all the way up to my second year in the NBA. They had pictures that I hadn’t even seen, that they got off of my family members’ Facebook. I was amazed by how invested everyone was and how many people knew who I was.
NDP: As you look ahead to Feb. 17, what’s it like to have your first retail release coming up with the brand when your Heir PE launches?
PB: It feels great. Every year I’ve been with the brand, it’s been another step. This is just another step in the right direction. They’ve done an amazing job of taking my vision for what I want the shoe to look and feel like and making it into exactly what I’m looking for. I’m excited for everyone else to see it and be able to buy it.
When we did the Luka 1 PE, it was only for the youth teams and there were only a select few pairs going out. But this one? It’s going to be right over there at Dick’s Sporting Goods for everyone to go get.
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