The 5-time NBA All-Star Paul George debuted his second signature shoe against the Cleveland Cavaliers earlier this month. George and designer Tony Hardman stuck to five rules when designing the PG2’s, take it beyond basketball, give it an edge, fine tune then fine tune again, design for the next generation, and let performance do the talking.
To go beyond basketball, is exactly what it sounds like, to take design and style beyond the sport. As someone who identifies as a gamer, the launch colorway combines two of Paul George’s biggest worlds into one piece of wearable art. “I just had a knack for video games,” said George of his off-court interests. “I’ve been a PlayStation guy ever since.” George and Hardman said they worked directly with the PlayStation team on the colorway. The shoe will include a redeem code for a dynamic theme that will come with every shoe itself. In addition, the PG and PlayStation logos found on the shoe tongues light up to a Luke Skywalker Lightsaber shade of blue.
Design for the shoe features a traditional tongue, so to achieve the more tight fit George prefers among his signature shoes, Hardman developed and designed dynamic wings. “It also eliminates some of the issues we had where the strap might be too long for narrow feet,” Hardman explains. One of the shoe’s improvements was the adjustment of the forefoot’s Zoom Air unit to ten millimeters. So all the way to the ground he’s got that full Zoom Bag and that really gives him propulsion in the forefoot,” says Hardman.
At the heart of it, the PG’s aren’t just for PG. The first shoe was well received by the younger professionals and they’re only looking to improve on it with the PG2’s. A good pair of shoes will improve your game in countless ways that most people will tend to overlook–not to mention the injury prevention. George said, “I’m most excited for those guys to get a chance to wear them and be in them and help them with their careers. At the end of the day, that’s what I want.”
Since the Cavs matchup, Paul George has laced up with an orange-based colorway as well that we may or may not expect to come out soon after the PG2’s drop on February 10.
