Designed with a lockdown strap for added support, the Pelicans star’s second sneaker looks to harness his unique blend of speed and power.
After debuting his first signature shoe with Jordan Brand a year ago, Zion Williamson’s sophomore sneaker has finally arrived, with two colorways slated for a US release before the month ends.
The Jordan Zion 2 released on Wednesday in the “Voodoo” colorway, with the “Hope Diamond” colorway to come on June 30.
Almost as soon as he entered the league, anticipation for the eventual Zion signature series began mounting. By year three, he became just the fifth NBA player to receive his namesake signature shoe with Jordan Brand.
“I feel incredibly blessed to be a part of the Jordan Brand family,” he said at the time. “Since I was a kid, I dreamed of making it to the league and having the type of impact on the game Michael Jordan had and continues to have today.”
Now set to enter Year 4 after missing all of last season, Williamson has been wearing the Zion 2s behind the scenes throughout the spring, as the former No. 1 pick works his way back to a return with the New Orleans Pelicans this fall.
First up at retail is a mis-matched brown, khaki, and olive green colorway, dubbed the “Voodoo” Zion 2. The theme follows up the gator-skinned “Bayou Boys” pair or Air Jordan 34s he headlined two seasons ago, that also highlighted the city he’s called home to start his NBA career.
“Dedicated to the city of New Orleans,” Williamson captioned on Instagram.
Williamson has primarily been wearing the Hope Diamond colorway — a white and graphic blue pair — in recent months throughout his workouts at Nike’s Beaverton campus and during viral pre-game windmill dunks.
Inspired by the Hope Diamond (valued at $200 million) and boasting vivid hues from a variety of angles, the shoe’s heel takes on a fractal graphic design throughout the sculpted collar.
Priced at $140, the Zion 2s feature a similar, yet enhanced, dual-packed cushioning setup that was utilized in the first Zion model. A full-length Air Strobel system provides a smooth ride, while a forefoot Zoom Air unit that is 20% larger is encased up front for responsiveness.
The shoe’s forefoot support strap and beefy build harken back to the feel and stance of Nike’s much-loved Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders signature shoes from the early 1990s. The edge of the strap closure features a shrunken-down ‘Z’ that was the dominant visual feature of his first signature shoe.
Throughout the toes of the shoe, a suction-like podular design aims to provide control and grip for the explosive and on-the-move Williamson. Along the outsole, the signature “ZION” logo font also features coding throughout, with the word ‘Win’ repeated within the logo in Morse code.
While an exceptionally subtle difference, the downward “ZION” font type seen on his signature apparel — and on the tongue and outsole of the shoe — has been ever-so-slightly modified from the font used across last season’s Zion 1 collection. The opening of the ‘O’ is now shifted to the bottom of the letter, and the orientation and angles of the lettering have been tweaked in spots.
As Williamson continues to work his way back to game action over the summer and into the fall, this duo of Zion 2 colorways are expected to be just the starting point of the launch calendar for his second Jordan signature sneaker.