Gamecock great A’ja Wilson gets ‘A’ONE’ signature shoe with Nike

Gamecock great and WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson’s long awaited signature shoe, the Nike A’ONE, was announced Saturday.

The project has been in the works for over a year, Boardroom reported. It’s expected launch is spring of next year. The shoe will be accompanied by a signature apparel collection and signature slides in youth and adult sizes.

“It’s been incredible working with Nike toward a dream of having my collection, and it really is an honor to take this next step and become a Nike signature athlete,” Wilson told Boardroom. “From my logo to the look of the shoe and the pieces throughout the collection, we’ve worked to make sure every detail is perfectly tuned to my game and style.”

She is the first Black WNBA player since Candace Parker 2010 to get a signature shoe. Nike launched a Staley signature shoe -- the Nike Zoom S5 -- in 1999.

Wilson’s agent Jade-Li English said Nike “hopped into place to secure building her a signature shoe business” after the Aces won their first championship in 2022. In 2023, Wilson took part in a Nike photo shoot at a local high school in Miami, where company executives played her a video of her former coach Dawn Staley. In the video, Staley let Wilson know she would be getting her signature shoe.

That fall Wilson began work on designing her shoe, letting the Nike team know early on she wanted approvals on every aspect of her signature line.

Specific details she asked for include silk inside hoodies so people with textured hair wouldn’t have to wear bonnets underneath and “pearlized elements and detailing” in honor of her late grandmother Hattie Rakes.

Rakes gifted Wilson her first set of pearls when she was a child.

“A pretty girl always wears her pearls,” Rakes had told her.

Wilson wore the necklace during pregame warmups throughout her career at South Carolina. On her senior day, the gameday staff drapped plastic white beaded necklaces on every seat in the lower bowl of Colonial Life Arena in Rakes’ honor.