Las Vegas Aces star A'ja Wilson announced Saturday that she has an agreement with Nike to launch a signature shoe line.
She made the announcement in Columbia, S.C., where she starred at South Carolina and was in town to lead the Aces against the Puerto Rico national team in an exhibition contest.
Since reports emerged in April that rookie Caitlin Clark is expected to receive an eight-year, $28 million deal with Nike, there had been criticism over the lack of shoe deals for Black WNBA players. ESPN reported that no black WNBA player had gotten a shoe deal since 2010.
Wilson, a two-time WNBA MVP who also is Black, pushed the concerns aside, for now, as she walked into Colonial Life Arena wearing a sweatshirt that said, "Of Course I Have A Shoe Dot Com." The referenced URL redirected to Nike's website and the official announcement.
The shoe is to be called the A'One and will be available in 2025.
Wilson, 27, has been working with Nike for a year on the design of her signature shoe. Financial terms have not been announced.
As it turns out, Wilson delayed her own announcement to coincide with her return to Columbia, which is her hometown, to honor her upbringing and her start in basketball.
"Greatness takes a lot of time," Wilson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Why not do it in a place where they literally watched me grow up from preschool to now?"
The Nike announcement summed up many of her impressive career accomplishments, reading:
"You thought we'd sleep on an SEC champion, national champion, #1 draft pick, five-time All-Star, U.S. Olympic gold winner, WNBA Finals MVP, a statue-having, New York Times Best Seller, TIME 100 Most Influential People in 2024, two-time WNBA champion, two-time Defensive Player of the Year, two-time WNBA MVP, and pettiest hooper on the internet?
"You thought.
"Of course, A'ja's got a shoe."
The Aces have won back-to-back WNBA Championships. Their title defense starts Tuesday with their regular-season opener against the Phoenix Mercury.
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