Sheryl Swoopes was a pioneer in both the game of basketball and in the world of sneakers. Not only was she the the first player to ever be signed to the WNBA (and arguably one the league’s greatest of all time), but she was also the first female athlete to ever get a signature sneaker.
It started with the Air Swoopes, a sneaker that Sheryl affectionately calls her “baby,” which appealed to both female and male hoops fans back in 1996. The silhouette then blossomed into a lineage of five more signature sneakers for Swoopes. Other female basketball players like Cynthia Cooper and Chamique Holdsclaw began getting signature sneakers during that era in the late ‘90s. And almost 20 years after the Nike Air Swoopes, female basketball players are getting their full Elite Basketball apparel collections, to match their male counterparts, from the brand.
Here, Swoopes explains why more female athletes should get signature sneakers and why it’s the perfect time for an Air Swoopes retro.
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