More than sneakers: How WNBA players wear their stories
Rhyne Howard's latest Player Exclusive shows how sneaker culture has become one of the league's most inspiring forms of storytelling.
Player Exclusives (PEs) have become a major way for athletes to showcase their personality, history, culture and more through a single sneaker.
They give fans more than what they see on the court, and tell a story that words can’t explain.
Atlanta Dream guard Rhyne Howard dropped her Jordan Tatum 4 PE design on June 11 of this year, and has a personal story tied to it. The shoes are mismatched: one is purple, and the other is teal.
Howard, who’s an artist by nature, chose to honor her loved ones by having them represented behind her design.
“I'm super intentional about everything that I create, whether it's my P.E., my art, stuff like that, but I want people to know that there are things that are close to my heart and I don't have a problem sharing that,” Howard said. “But just realizing I'm also human as well and there is a soft spot there, off the court, but being able to have that and have a PE that expresses it, I feel like not everybody gets a chance to do that.”
The Design Breakdown
The purple sneaker represents a tribute to one of Howard’s best friends’ battle with Lupus. She said in an interview with Made for the W that she always wore purple sneakers or sneakers with purple accents in May, ahead of the team's season, to support the cause.
The teal sneaker on the right foot is dedicated to raising awareness of scleroderma, which is what her grandmother passed from when Howard was younger. The blue accents on that same shoe represent her late close friend Terrence Clarke, who was a fellow basketball player at Howard’s alma mater, the University of Kentucky.
He was like a little brother to her, and the two were inseparable during their college years. He passed a little over a year before Howard was drafted in 2022. On the day of the design, she said how happy she was to spread all three figures in her work.
“Thankfully, purple and blue go together pretty well… but being able to have it all in one shoe to keep me grounded, making sure that I'm where my feet are and having that and representing them,” Howard said.
One playful detail appears on the back of the sneakers. If you’ve been following Howard and her teammate Allisha Gray on social media, they’ve openly expressed their love for Legos. They build mega sets and showcase them for fans to experience their art off the court.
The Lego bricks in the back are not just a representation of the building-block company, but also an escape for Howard from things that stress her out. She says it reminds her to find something calm to do.
That ties into the “Find a Way” mantra that’s printed near the same area of the shoe.
“Find a way to protect yourself, find a way to protect your peace, find a way to get back to your happiness and what you enjoy doing. And being able to not let anyone steal your joy,” Howard said in a promo video the day of the shoes’ reveal.
Howard also expressed her gratitude to the Jordan brand for making her vision and goals come to life. She signed with the company in 2022, right after being drafted to the Dream. With that deal, she has a rotation of PE’s that heavily involve her in the design process. Her Find a Way Tatum 4 PE was one of her more emotionally attached designs, with a strong tie to her personal life.
“They (Jordan) always do a super good job. They pay attention a lot to the details as well, but being able to have a team that takes a step back when it comes to being creative with what you want in your shoe is super helpful, and I'm thankful for them always,” Howard said.
The significance of PEs in the WNBA
So, where can you purchase these custom pairs?
You can’t.
In fact, the majority of PEs are sneakers that are made specifically for athletes. Exceptions are released later for a limited time. However, most are made specifically for athletes, allowing them to customize them to their liking, including durability and performance beyond the actual design.
The personal design aspect is what makes the exclusivity feel like a reward and sets a moment and value that only that athlete will understand. Like an exclusive piece of artwork in a museum, most of these designs are meant to be seen but not bought.
This can be seen on the one hand as a special drop that keeps the mystique alive, but on the other hand, fans might feel a slight disconnect when representing their favorite player with what makes them who they are.
In the WNBA specifically, PEs have grown rapidly. The league wasn’t always part of this initiative like its counterparts in the NBA. But once the sport's popularity continued to grow and visibility became a driving factor, the women were ready when their turn came to pour their all into their masterpieces.
Women’s Basketball Sneaker Pioneers
It’s important to look back at the greats who paved the way to reach these heights. Three-time WNBA MVP Sheryl Swoopes was the first woman to get her signature shoe, the Nike Air Swoopes, in 1995. Hall of Famer Maya Moore was the first female basketball player to sign with Jordan brand in 2011.
This helped open the door for athletes like two-time WNBA champion Dana Evans to bring their designs to the spotlight. She infused her personality into each sneaker, treating it like a blank canvas to paint a narrative. Evans is known for her first Jordan PEs, which tell stories about aspects of her life in fun colors and intricate details, standing out for their meaning.
Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum himself even chose to wear one of her designs, “Cheat Code” Tatum 2 PE, in a 2024 NBA playoff game. This became a highlight of a WNBA player’s shoe being on display in such a significant moment.
Evans told the Chicago Tribune that having the opportunity to design a shoe that represents them is important not only to bring more viewers but also to give fans an understanding and a way to relate to them through the different things the shoes represent.
Opportunities like this trickle down to the collegiate level, highlighting young stars like Paige Bueckers, now of the Dallas Wings, who became the first Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) college athlete to design and release a PE to the public. Her Nike G.T. Hustle 3s, also worn by NBA players such as Clint Capela, showcased her creativity on a national stage. Bueckers incorporated phrases, colorways and area codes tied to her family, hometown and favorite colors, weaving her personal story into every detail.
This became a symbol that you don’t have to wait until you reach a certain level in your career to share your story and wear it on the court.
All athletes have a story. And many more names were behind the scenes, making opportunities like these possible and unlocking a unique form of storytelling for the league to take part in. As the game continues to grow, so will the stories told through the sneakers athletes wear.
Every new design becomes another chapter, reminding fans that sometimes the loudest stories are told without a single word.
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