Paige Bueckers will become the first college athlete to receive a Nike shoe collaboration. Well, at least that’s what the talk online right now is all about.
Paige Bueckers, one of the highest-ranked female college basketball players at the University of Connecticut and a recent Highsnobiety FRONTPAGE alumni, is focused on leading the UConn Huskies to a national championship in her final 2024-2025 year before inevitably embarking on a promising WNBA career.
Off the court, with nearly 2.6 million followers on TikTok and 1.9 million followers on Instagram, Bueckers has already surpassed the celebrity of some WNBA players and is continuing to build her platform.
In short, she has the profile needed for a history-making sneaker collaboration.
Though specific details are yet to be disclosed, rumor has it that Buecker’s debut Nike sneaker will be a limited-edition take on the GT Hustle 3. This will (reportedly) debut on September 12 and have the area codes 860 and 612 on the upper, which represent UCONN (860) and her hometown of Edina, Minnesota (612). Alongside this, the sock liner will feature Paige’s mantra and her nickname.
This will be a great look not only for Bueckers but also for Nike’s GT Hustle 3 model, a shoe that debuted at the beginning of July and has already become the shoe of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
This collaboration matters because it would make Paige Bueckers the first NIL athlete to receive a Nike sneaker. Not only a milestone in the recent progress for college athletes’ ability to become paid endorsers and monetize their success outside of their school-funded scholarships and benefits, but also for the endorsement of female college basketball by the top sneaker brands in the business.
While Nike is yet to release an official statement, if the rumors of this sneaker collab are true, then it will be interesting to see what precedent it will set. It’s going to be likely that more big companies will begin setting their sights on college athletes for collaborations and try to take on a large piece of a, so-far, largley untapped college market.
A testament to the growing legacy of young female basketball players (which WNBA stars like Caitlin Clark and Angela Reese have continued to push) the significance of this history-defining moment being made by a female sportsperson should not be lost.
This is not just a big moment for Bueckers, who is still in the early stages of what is shaping up to be a stellar professional career, but for the entire female basketball movement as this collaboration would give more recognition to the players and everyone else involved in the sport, from college athletes all the way to the pros.