Li Ning Debuts Spain Basketball Shoe

words_Nick DePaula

As Li Ning has lofty plans to break into the US basketball market, they’re also planning to simply broaden their global reach, as they recently sponsored both Argentina and Spain’s national Men’s Basketball teams in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Here we have a first view of the basketball shoe recently created for Spain team player Berni Rodriguez, the lone Li Ning endorser on the squad. Guys with existing endorsement deals will of course continue wearing their own shoes, meaning you won’t see these on the feet of Marc or Pau Gasol, Rudy Fernandez or Ricky Rubio anytime soon.

Made of a white synthetic leather upper, there isn’t any tech info released just yet, but while the general aesthetics may appear safe and a bit unimpressive, it’s the outsole design that is most intriguing. There appears to be a Carbon Fiber midfoot shank astutely placed along the heel through the midfoot, providing great rigidity and support and surely a step in the direction of high performance for the brand’s young pursuit of the struggling category. There’s also some nice touches like the Spain team logo along the tongue, the uniform font ‘Espana’ along the heel, and a partially translucent outsole along the medial half of the heel.