Nike Hyperdunk 2013 Kyrie Irving PE: Down Under Style

With its initial unveiling back in 2008, the original Nike Hyperdunk pretty much single-handedly ushered in the next generation of performance basketball sneakers. Featuring a lightweight frame and the introduction of Flywire support cables, the Hyperdunk changed the basketball landscape forever. Not only did it raise the bar for how light and sleek a basketball shoe could be while still maintaining optimum cushioning and stability, but it also hammered some authoritative nails into the coffin of the standard leather basketball shoe as we once knew it. Thanks to the combination of cheaper production costs and the maximum strength/minimal weight capabilities they provide, synthetic composite materials have taken over the genre and are here to stay.

This year’s edition of the Hyperdunk marks the fifth installment in the Hyperdunk series, with each new model building off the original look, shape and general concept while adding new design tweaks and the latest in material and construction innovations along the way. The Hyperdunk 2013 may follow the proven formula of its predecessors by making the most of the Nike’s most state of the art technology applications, but it also takes the visual look of the shoe to perhaps its boldest heights yet. The angular geometric lines of the Hyperfuse-layered upper combine with exposed Dynamic Flywire and molded detailing on the tongue and ankle to give the Hyperdunk 2013 its most most daring make-up to date, but it’s the sharp oversized ridges of the extra high Lunarlon heel piece that steal the show above all else.

Nike’s yearly Hyperdunk offering has become a staple at all levels of basketball play, but after five shoes, sometimes a shot in the arm is needed to keep an annual silhouette’s ongoing series feeling

new and exciting, and the Hyperdunk 2013 does just that. This year’s shoe possesses much of the same wow factor that the original Hyperdunk brought to the table, but this time, it won’t have a car-jumping Kobe Bryant to give it that extra splash of star power. Instead, Nike will turn to another young phenom just waiting to make his presence felt as a member of the Swoosh roster.

Kyrie Irving is one of the NBA’s brightest young talents. Now entering his third year in the league, he appears to be poised to take the next steps towards stardom. While he might not be quite ready for his own signature model yet, he’s just right to be the unofficial face of the Hyperdunk 2013. The injury to Rajon Rondo and the departures of Blake Griffin and Russell Westbrook to Jordan Brand have cleared out plenty of room in Nike Basketball’s top tier of non-signature players, and no one stands to benefit more than Kyrie. The Hyperdunk is a shoe designed with versatility in mind, making it the perfect shoe to complement Irving’s game and broad skill set.

You can expect to see a variety of Hyperdunk 2013 colorways on Kyrie Irving’s feet over the course of this coming season, but to make an introductory splash, Nike has whipped up a more lifestyle directed version based on the early days he spent in Australia before heading to the States. Marking the first time that a Kyrie shoe will be available to the public, the Nike Basketball design team really went all out in terms of telling the story through color and graphic elements. Continue on as we get the details of Kyrie Irving’s outback-inspired Hyperdunk PE from Nike global footwear designer, Erick Goto, and we take a look at what the future may hold for Kyrie’s tenure with Nike.

COLORWAY BREAKDOWN WITH
NIKE BASKETBALL DESIGNER ERICK GOTO

Sneaker News:  What’s the concept behind this version of the shoe?

Erick Goto:  The Nike Hyperdunk 2013 introduces Kyrie Irving’s lineage. Some may not know he was born in Melbourne, Australia. Telling the story of the beginning was logical to the Nike Basketball design team as inspiration for Irving’s first player exclusive shoe available at retail. It’s a celebration of his past and where he is going in the future.

SN: What are the color inspirations?

Erick Goto:  The classic Australia National basketball team uniform features a green and yellow colorway. Keeping in mind the notion of “past vs. future”, we decided to modernize those colors and use a green-toned teal and volt.

SN:  What are the graphics and material inspirations?

Erick Goto:  When we met with Kyrie, we were trying to get a sense of his personal style outside of traditional basketball shoes. He gravitated towards rich, luxurious materials that are popular right now, but was also unafraid of what was new and different. To address that, the upper has a rich leather texture that we applied a subtle metallic finish to. We also accented the shoe with a metallic copper heel and Swoosh to up the luxe factor without using a typical gold.

From a graphic standpoint, we added an abstract “wave” pattern on the tongue and the lining, to tell the story of his travels overseas from Melbourne to New Jersey. There is also a map graphic on the inside of the tongue that nods to that as well.

KYRIE IRVING’S PRESENT AND FUTURE PLACE
AT NIKE BASKETBALL

With Kobe’s career now nearing an end, we’ve debated before on whether or not Kyrie Irving can be the go-to-guy to take over an empty slot in the Nike signature model rotation. The Kobe line may very well continue on even post-retirement, but there’s no denying that it will be sooner than later that Nike needs a few more young horses in the race. However, Nike signatures models aren’t handed out to just anybody. It’s an elite club that doesn’t open its doors to new members very often, with the carefully considered criteria for admittance going way beyond juicy stat lines and a likable personality.

In the ten years since LeBron came into the league, there have been very few top draft picks who’ve come into the league as easily marketable stars ready to move units as a rookie. Most notably, Nike brought in Kevin Durant, adidas locked up the D-Rose franchise and Reebok signed John Wall. While those first two have worked out well, the John Wall scenario, while not a complete failure, has provided a cautionary example of the dangers of placing too many eggs in an unproven rookie’s basket.

The mindset nowadays for most brands, including Nike, seems to be more of a wait and see approach, where you bring guys into the fold in a non-signature capacity in hopes that some will emerge as strong candidates to make the jump to the next plateau of marketability. It takes a rare combination of style, charisma and on-court success to bring it all together, and these days it seems like fewer and fewer guys actually have it. Looking down the list of potential options on the current Nike roster, 21 year old Kyrie Irving appears most likely to fit the bill.

If there were any questions about his star potential, they were answered at this past February’s All-Star Weekend in Houston where he put on a highlight-filled clinic across three nights of action on a national stage. Kyrie has all the makings of a bankable endorser, but there are two major obstacles standing in his way at the moment. The first of which – playing in a small market – has been overcome by LeBron and KD before him, so it’s definitely not a dealbreaker, but the second is a bit more worrisome. Dating back to his college days at Duke, Irving has dealt with a variety of injuries, and in his first two NBA seasons, he has yet to reach 60 games played.

So even with plenty of reasons to believe that Kyrie Irving has the pedigree to sell signature Nike sneakers, there are still a few on the flipside that suggest that some patience and paid dues might be the more prudent approach. As a result, Kyrie is now filling a much needed role as Nike Basketball’s “6th man” of sorts – not quite signature-ready perhaps, but an ideal fit to lend some star power to other products in the line, such as the Hyperdunk 2013 in this case. Only time will tell if Irving will make the jump into signature territory, and this Hyperdunk PE will be the first real test of the market’s response to his name and logo being attached to a retail shoe. Nike will always need exciting players to be de facto representatives of their high-profile non-signature models, but it will ultimately be up to Kyrie Irving himself to see how much further up that prestigious ladder his game can take him.