How Victor Wembanyama’s unearthly size and still-growing feet made him Nike’s ‘Alien’
During his debut NBA season, 2023 No. 1 overall pick wore five different sizes as Nike prepares for the inevitable launch of his own signature line
As soon as “Wemby” landed in conversation, Nike CEO and president John Donahoe beamed in fascination of basketball’s French-born, 7-foot-4 anomaly, Victor Wembanyama.
The moment occurred in early April at Palais Brongniart, the former home of the Paris Stock Exchange. Donahoe reaffirmed Nike’s early investment in Wembanyama, who signed with the Swoosh years before his NBA debut.
“Victor is a generational talent,” Donahoe told Andscape at Nike’s “Nike On Air” event for the 2024 Paris Games. Set for his Olympics debut, the 20-year-old San Antonio Spurs star forward represents his country and first footwear brand, approximately four years after Nike first heard of the uniquely sized teenager playing in France’s top league.
“It’s remarkable how much he’s experienced at 20,” Donahoe said. “He’s handled everything with grace and had a standout rookie year.”
Wembanyama’s initial multiyear Nike contract carried into his unworldly 2023-24 debut NBA season as the Spurs’ No. 1 overall pick. After averaging 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds and a league-leading 3.6 blocks in 71 games, Wembanyama emerged as the unanimous NBA Rookie of the Year, a milestone Nike celebrated with the release of his own special-edition sneaker.
On May 15, the Nike Air Zoom G.T. Hustle 2 Victor Wembanyana dropped online for $170 a pair. The shoe sold out in minutes.
“The relationship with Nike, it makes sense to me and feels good because I can’t see a more ambitious brand that matches my own ambition,” Wembayana said during his Rookie of the Year news conference. “They’re thinking ahead, outside of the box.”
Highlighted by a custom alien head illustration on the heels and insoles, Wembanyama’s Hustle 2s, from Nike’s “Greater Than” (G.T.) series launched in 2021, marked the first retail shoe release of his young career. However, the true beginning of Wembanyama’s Nike origin story took shape exactly a year before his alien-adorned debut shoe came out.
On May 16, 2023, Nike hosted a lottery watch party for Wembayana at the company’s Paris headquarters. After the Spurs secured the top pick, Nike reps handed out celebratory hats adorned with an alien graphic, according to The Mirror and San Antonio-Express News.
“I met Victor and his parents in Paris last year,” Donahoe said. “And when I shook his hand, it completely engulfed mine.”
Though Nike has yet to confirm whether terms of Wembanyama’s endorsement include the design and launch of an official signature shoe line, rumblings in basketball and sneaker circles speculate it’s a matter of when — not if — Wembanyama will become Nike’s next NBA signature headliner. The Swoosh, however, has already delivered a concept sneaker designed exclusively for Wembanyama.
Nike
At the end of the Paris activation in April, Nike unveiled a collection of 13 sneaker prototypes, each inspired by one of the brand’s Olympians. Wembanyama’s A-I-R prototype, displayed inside Palais Brongniart, materialized in a design resembling a spaceship than a sneaker.
“Just look at the prototype of his shoe concept,” Donahoe said. “Victor’s foot is really THAT big.”
With the Olympics opening this week, Wembanyama’s A-I-R prototype remains on display in Paris, where people can go see the concept shoe finalized in size 21, Nike confirmed to Andscape. Wembanyama’s prototype, exhibited at the historic Centre Pompidou museum, looks like a UFO you’d imagine he arrived on from the extraterrestrial world Nike is building its basketball brand around.
Yet, an even more alien reality: Wembanyama’s feet are still growing.
Back in October 2022, that one word — “alien” — organically aligned the stars of marketing inspiration for Wembanyama and, eventually, Nike.
During an NBA preseason news conference, Los Angeles Lakers star forward LeBron James became the first person to call Wembanyama an “alien” after Wembanyama’s 37-point game with France’s Metropolitans 92 on U.S. TV.
“Everybody has been a unicorn over the last few years, but he’s more like an alien,” said James, praising Wembanyama’s fluidity and grace on the court. “No one has ever seen anyone as tall but as fluid and graceful as he is out on the floor.”
For the past few years, many have considered Wembanyama — by metrics of athletic ability, uniqueness of size and global marketing appeal — the most-hyped hooper to surface since James entered the NBA at 18. James’ debut signature shoe, the Nike Air Zoom Generation, was released in October 2003 at the start of his rookie season. Three months later, Wembanyama was born in early January 2004, five days after King James’ 20th birthday.
Now 20 himself, Wembanyama also received his first Nike shoe, though not technically a signature model, as an NBA rookie.
“At his size,” James said in 2022, “with his ability to put the ball on the floor, shoot stepback jumpers out of the post, stepback 3s, catch-and-shoot 3s, and block shots … He’s, for sure, a generational talent.” His words foreshadow Nike CEO John Donahoe’s acknowledgment of Wembanyama as one of the brand’s highest-profile signings since his tenure began in 2020.
“Wemby is nothing short of an awe-inspiring, difference-maker of a generation,” Nike’s basketball footwear director Deepa Ramprasad told Andscape. “Our team has a uniquely exciting challenge to meet the call-to-action of an athlete who a lot of us think has the opportunity to redefine and reimagine how the game of basketball looks.”
Yet even before James classified him as an alien, Wembanyama had begun to pinpoint his foreign differences, which extended beyond his physical stature.
KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images
“I feel like I’m an artist on and off the court. I love thinking about a lot of things — I love drawing. I love building Legos. I love writing,” Wembanyama said during an ESPN2 interview in August 2022. That summer also marked the 40th anniversary of director Steven Spielberg’s 1982 blockbuster film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which tells the story of an alien — named Zrek, but famously known as “E.T.” — trying to find his way as the only of his kind on Earth.
As weird as it sounds, E.T. ‘s nostalgic narrative and Wembanyama’s real-life experience aren’t all that different, save for a pair of plot points. The two actors who portrayed E.T. stood around 2-feet-10 — exactly 4½ feet shorter than Wembanyama. And unlike his movie character comparison, Wembanyama is in no rush to leave where he’s landed in the NBA.
“I like being called an alien,” Wembanyama said in a Sports Illustrated profile before the June 2023 NBA draft. “I’m really glad [LeBron] said that because I didn’t like to be called a unicorn. I like [alien] because it’s just something not from this world. It’s really what I’m working to be — something unique and original.”
It’s almost as if Wembanyama took James’ alien assignment and translated the words into a creative challenge of personal branding. Before Nike’s Paris draft lottery party in May 2023, Wembanyana began doodling Alien heads, stick figures and spaceships — drawings he proudly presented to Nike and the brand’s longtime ad agency, Wieden+Kennedy, in meetings.
“The Alien concept came from Wemby,” Rampsarad said. “That was something that the team talked about in partnership with him. ‘Hey, how do we want to position you and storytell?’ Specifically through some of the player-exclusives that you saw him wear this season. So, the concept arose during a collaborative conversation with him and our design partners.”
Within minutes of the Spurs winning the No. 1 overall pick, Nike posted a custom image on social media with Wembanyama positioned in front of a Paris backdrop with a green streak flying over the Eiffel Tower. By mid-August 2023, Wembanyama appeared in his first brand campaign, promoting Nike Tech gear. “The Extraterrestrial has landed,” read the caption of Nike’s post.
“Wemby is all for the Alien storytelling,” Ramprasad said. “I think it’s kind of cool to see his confidence in our ability to tell an athlete’s story.”
True to Wembanyama’s alien fascination, one of the NBA’s most complex X-files concerns the mystery behind the 20-year-old star’s correct shoe size.
For this story, no representative — from the NBA’s league office, the Spurs organization, his agency or even Nike — would confirm Wembanyama’s official shoe size. Yet, there’s tangible evidence to substantiate the unearthly, yet not improbable, reality that Wembanyama’s feet grew as much as two sizes during his first NBA season.
You read that right.
If the claim still seems unfathomable, follow the trail of reports linking Wembanyama to wearing five different shoe sizes throughout his rookie year.
Last fall, ahead of the 2023-24 season, the NBA provided Andscape with an official spreadsheet featuring the apparel and footwear size of every player on the roster, reported annually by all 30 teams as a league requirement. Initially, the Spurs listed Wembanyama’s shoe size as 20, tying him with five fellow players — Rudy Gobert, Robin Lopez, Boban Marjanovic, Karl-Anthony Towns and Ivica Zubac — for the title of biggest feet in the NBA.
Yet, during the preseason in early October 2023, the league’s @NBAKicks social media handle posted a photo of Wembanyama sitting courtside wearing a pair of Nike G.T. Runs. The caption: “Size 20.5!”
Reginald Thomas II/San Antonio Spurs
According to healthline.com, “feet usually stop growing at age 20 in males.” Midway through his rookie season, Wembanyama turned 20 in January, around the same time Nike reportedly began designing his A-I-R prototype to be unveiled at the brand’s Paris Games activation in April. According to Nike, the concept shoe’s final product measured at size 21. Yet, by the end of his rookie season, Wembanyama disclosed to at least one NBA writer that his shoe size had reached 21.5, the anonymous reporter who covered the Spurs substantially this season told Andscape.
“We’ll let Nike handle the shoe size question,” wrote Jordan Howenstine, director of basketball communications for the Spurs, in an email to Andscape when asked to confirm Wembanyama’s shoe size. As for his endorser’s explanation: “All of the Nike Basketball footwear worn by Victor is built to his exact specifications,” said a brand spokesperson.
But there’s at least one known pair of Wembanyama’s rookie Nike sneakers in a size 22.
On April 15, renowned international collectibles broker Sotheby’s listed an auction featuring a bright yellow pair of Wembanyama’s player-exclusive Nike GT Hustle 2s. Nike included the shoes in a batch of PEs, and the brand provided Wembanyama with options to wear while competing in multiple events during February’s NBA All-Star Weekend. Wembanyama never wore the bright yellow Hustle 2s in a game this past season. Yet, official photos of the sneakers released by Sotheby’s show the box’s label — clearly reading size 22.
“The G.T. Hustle 2s fit absolutely true to size,” explained Stanley Tse, a footwear product tester and contributor for WearTesters. And while it’s worth noting that many players wear custom insoles or orthotics, requiring them to go up a half or full size, the common NBA footwear trend isn’t exactly necessary with the GT Hustle 2 silhouette.
“The caveat is there’s already an insole in the Hustles that’s cut a specific way because the Zoom strobel cushion is directly under foot for comfort and impact protection,” Tse said. “However, it’s known that Nike customizes models for players to their exact liking.”
“I’m sure Nike did a clay molding of Wemby’s foot to get exact measurements,” Tse said. “But if his foot is still growing, which I wouldn’t put past him, Nike’s gonna have to keep doing moldings.”
Michael Gonzales/NBAE via Getty Images
Jim Poorten/NBAE via Getty Images
If Wembanyama’s foot size officially reaches 22, he will be tied with Los Angeles Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal and center Bob Lanier for the largest in NBA history.
“One of the things that’s the most unique about working with Wemby so far is how he’s continuing to develop in his body, not just his game,” Ramprasad said. “For us at Nike, it’s about how do we keep up with Wemby’s evolvement anatomically to meet all the needs he may have from a footwear perspective.”
From 1992 to 1995, O’Neal’s foot grew from size 19 to 22. In five months, from October 2023 to February, Wembanyama laced up, or at the very least received, pairs of sneakers in sizes 20, 20.5, 21, 21.5, and 22.
“We’ve had athletes before who are considered big in the space of basketball and footwear,” Ramprasad said. “But, it almost feels like Wemby and his feet are ever-growing, right? An athlete that young, whose body is evolving at the rate his is? The best word to use is dynamic.”
When Wembanyama’s signature Nike line debuts, his suspected size 22 shoes will be the largest ever for a Nike headliner, surpassing Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning, who wore an 18 in his two Nike signatures from 1997 and 1998, and Kevin Durant, who also wears a size 18.
“The similarities between Kevin and Wemby are insane,” said Nike footwear designer Leo Chang, who crafted Durant’s first 12 signatures. “What I saw in Kevin was that he was almost this superhuman who had adapted to the game of basketball. He was this ultimate hybrid player who could play all positions. After growing up, he developed the handles of a guard but then stretched and could play even in the center.
“I think Wemby has similar versatility to KD,” Chang said. “And what’s amazing is Wemby will continue to develop that versatility to inform his footwear product.”
Durant’s signature line, which debuted 15 seasons ago during his 2008-09 sophomore NBA campaign, transformed the 6-foot-11 star into the “Durantula” and “Slim Reaper.” In 2019, Greek-born star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who wears a size 17, launched his ongoing signature series that branded him as the “Freak” of Nike Basketball.
“Just like LeBron said, everybody’s been a unicorn,” Wembanyama told reporters at Madison Square Garden in November 2023. “But, there’s just one alien, right?”
By NBA All-Star Weekend in February, Wembanyama debuted his alien-inspired Nike G.T. Hustle 2s. Before wearing the shoes on the court during the All-Star Skills Challenge, Wembanyama showed off the glowing green PE colorway on social media. Specifically, Wembanyama made sure that cameras caught his iridescent logo embossed on each shoe’s heel.
“An alien I drew one day,” Wembanyama said at All-Star in February, the first and only time he donned the special-edition G.T. Hustle 2s. Out of the 71 games he played this past NBA season, Wembanyama only wore Hustle 2s five times, and favored the Nike G.T. Run model, which he laced up in 66 games.
Yet, neither Wembanyama’s alien affinity nor his innate creativity were limited to the G.T. Hustle silhouette that Nike chose as the canvas for his first Alien-themed shoe. At some point during the 2023-24 season, Wembanyama’s customization of his light pink G.T. Runs showed up in images of his most-worn rookie PEs.
Wembanyama drew an alien’s face and spaceship in black Sharpie on the back of his left shoe.
The 7-foot-4 star couldn’t wait for Nike to put his official alien logo out in the world.
In the past 40 years of Swoosh lore and marketing, Nike has launched Air Jordan’s Jumpman, Penny’s 1 Cent, King James’ crown and the Black Mamba’s sheath. Yet, no signature logo in Nike Basketball history experienced a rollout like Wembanyama’s alien.
Before the end of the 2023-24 NBA regular season, Nike unveiled Wembanyama’s extraterrestrial branding in a commercial opening with the line, “Somewhere in South Texas,” before a drone image reveals a crop circle in the form of an alien head flanked by two swooshes. Nike strategically released the 45-second spot — with the tagline “The total eclipse has just begun” — on April 8 during the afternoon that marked the first full eclipse to pass over North America in seven years.
Approximately four years ago, the first correspondence swirling Wembanyama sparked between a Nike sports marketing rep in Europe and the head of the brand’s sports research lab back at headquarters in Oregon. The message essentially decoded as, “There’s an athlete out here in France, unlike any being we’ve ever seen.” Soon, Nike embarked upon the challenge of solving for Wembanyama’s unique body type through footwear.
“Wemby is an athlete who really just inspires us to rethink our systems and innovation in a way that, without him, we may not be catalyzed in the same way,” Ramprasad said. “It’s nothing short of incredibly exciting. And it’s also one of those, ‘watch him in this space’ moments. Because his journey is only just beginning. And so too is ours in partnership with him.”
In the past 12 or so months since Wembanyama entered the NBA, Nike has closely examined the evolution of his growing feet while honing in on the exact fit and sizing of sneakers he needs on the court. Wembanyama has already begun testing another silhouette after announcing on social media in early July that the new Nike G.T. Hustle 3 will be his “shoe for the summer,” which he’ll lace up exclusively during the 2024 Olympics.
For the size-20-something wearing Wembanyama, a Nike signature line certainly doesn’t land outside the worlds of imagination or possibility.
“It’s a very beneficial relationship and it’s working,” Wembanyama said of his Nike partnership in May. “But, what we’ve done so far is not enough. We want to do more.”