In honor of Team USA’s win in the men’s basketball tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Adidas had a gift for guard Anthony Edwards: a custom pair of his shoes.
The athletic apparel brand revealed a gold medal-inspired edition of Edwards’ signature shoe, the AE 1, at a party it hosted at the Westfield Forum Des Halles in Paris. The shoe has many of the same features as the base version of the AE 1 but with a main color of gold, white sole and black on the heel, tongue and laces.
Edwards is currently the face of Adidas’ basketball brand, and the company released his first signature shoe – the aforementioned AE 1 – in December. Its early reviews praised the shoe’s comfortable feel, unique design and high quality.
The gold medal-inspired version of the AE 1 appears to be a 1-of-1 exclusive shoe for Edwards, but Adidas has already announced new colorways for the shoe in the near future.
The company already released the ‘Mural’ colorway on Aug. 5. In addition, the AE 1 Low Year of the Snake will release in January, while a release date for the ‘Slime’ colorway is still to be announced.
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Anthony Edwards gold medal-inspired Adidas shoe
Take a look at the custom golden shoe that Adidas made in honor of Edwards’ gold medal win with Team USA:
Noah Lyles clarifies comments on Edwards’ shoe event
Notably absent from Edwards’ shoe event on Sunday was Noah Lyles, a fellow Adidas athlete and 2024 Olympics gold medalist.
In an interview with Time published in June, Lyles seemed to call out both Edwards and Adidas. The sprinter seemingly took offense to the apparel brand using Edwards’ shoe event as an incentive during contract negotiations with Lyles.
‘You want to do what?’ Lyles said to Time. ‘You want to invite me to [an event for] a man who has not even been to an NBA Finals? In a sport that you don’t even care about? And you’re giving him a shoe? No disrespect: the man is an amazing athlete. He is having a heck of a year. I love that they saw the insight to give him a shoe, because they saw that he was going to be big. All I’m asking is, ‘How could you not see that for me?”
The interview moment went viral once again after Lyles didn’t appear for Edwards’ event with Adidas in Paris on Sunday. The sprinter took to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday to clarify his earlier comments and his absence from the event, which he said was due to ‘prior engagements.’
‘There is a rumor going around that I did not go to [Anthony Edwards’] shoe release because he didn’t deserve it,’ Lyles wrote. ‘That is not the case he definitely deserves his shoes he is an amazing player. The problem was finding time based on my prior engagements. Congratulations on Becoming an Olympic champion!’