Mercury’s Natasha Cloud shows off special pair of shoes, passionately commemorating Gun Violence Awareness Day

Just as she is getting prepared for a tough battle on the court between the Phoenix Mercury and Minnesota Lynx tonight, but she has also been a strong advocate off the court for an even bigger battle in society.

Rising Up for a Major Cause

Making her stance felt on mass shootings impacting life in the United States daily, Cloud wants to keep up the fight for everyone to be safe and put pressure on government officials to take action in stopping unwarranted deaths by guns.

“We have an obligation in this country to protect our citizens, to protect our kids, to protect innocent lives and we continue to not do it,” Cloud said on Sunday after the Mercury beat the Los Angeles Sparks. “We’d rather place a TikTok ban before we ever implement any gun laws or legislation surrounding it to protect our citizens in this country. Kids deserve to feel safe going to school, they deserve to feel safe in school and we have an obligation as the adults – I like to say that word [adults] because we are not acting like it.

“Our elected officials have an obligation to protect us as citizens, and they are not doing their jobs. That’s why my fight continues, it is going to continue until it is safe to go to school, to go to the mall, to go to outlet stores. We have a mass shooting every single day, and you might not see it in the media because it is skewed but we have a mass shooting every single day in this country, every single day. And we are still not doing anything.”

According to Sandy Hook Promise, “1 out of 10 gun deaths are age 19 or younger” as the number of school shootings has skyrocketed drastically in recent years.

U.S. News and World Report data reporter Christopher Wolf displayed data that from 2021 to 2023, there has been a massive spike in school shootings and the trend doesn’t look like it will stop anytime soon. Last year alone, there were 346 different reported instances of school shootings in 2023 based on the data, with 57 deaths.

Sparking Change to Broader Audience Range

With a game falling right on Gun Violence Awareness Day, Cloud will wear a customized pair of “My Kicks My Cause” shoes against Minnesota.

The kicks feature the message “PROTECT KIDS NOT GUNS” on her right shoe, a firearm being crossed out, the Nike swoosh logo designed to look as if it was scribbled by a kid.

As for the colorway, the shoes were orange, black and white. The base color orange symbolizes the “Wear Orange” initiative after the tragic death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton in 2013.

Here is what the nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety has stated on its website about the significance of the color:

“On Jan. 21, 2013, Hadiya Pendleton marched in President Obama’s second inaugural parade. One week later, Hadiya was shot and killed on a playground in Chicago. Soon after this tragedy, Hadiya’s friends commemorated her life by wearing orange, the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and others. Wear Orange is now observed every June. Thousands of people wear the color orange to honor Hadiya and more than 43,000 Americans are killed with guns and approximately 76,000 more are shot and wounded every year.”

Talking about the organization and what it means to her, Cloud wearing these shoes will make a statement while on the court, hoping to ignite more conversations on gun violence.

“Wear Orange is really important to me,” Cloud said. “Protecting our kids, protecting our civilians, innocent civilians in this country, that’s a main priority for me. So the shoes are amazing. Wear Orange is our motto, especially for Everytown, a grassroots organization that I’ve been a part of for the last few years. Walking through them [the shoes] teaches peace. I think more than anything our world needs is a lot more peace right now.

“And this is the biggest one for me, ‘PROTECT KIDS NOT GUNS.’ Making sure that we are ensuring our safety. When I was in [Washington] D.C., there were two shootings at an elementary school. Going in and hearing how unsafe those kids felt and how scared they were to go to school every day, that killed me because that should be the last thing that kids have to worry about while going to have an education.”