Ahead of the NBA clash in London between the Knicks and the Wizards, and with the recent unveiling of the Nike Adapt BB Sneaker, which sees an advanced power-lacing system used in sport for the first time, we caught up with one of the key players to be wearing the innovative shoe, French NBA star Frank Ntilikina.
A massive football fan, Ntilikina spoke about his experiences from last summer’s World Cup as well as his love of football jerseys, before discussing the much-hyped shoe itself and the prospect of wearing it.
Firstly, did you enjoy watching the World Cup?
It was crazy, amazing! After the summer league was over I flew back to France just to watch the final. I mean the atmosphere was amazing, the whole country came together to watch that game which was a great experience in itself, then the fact that we won made it a very memorable day in my life.
The football shirt has become even more present in fashion, it's like the basketball shirt is and can be brought into a lifestyle look. What did you make of the Nigeria kit at the World Cup?
Yes we definitely do see a lot more people wearing the soccer jersey outside of the sport. It’s really part of the fashion now. I have a lot of jerseys, a whole bunch that I love to wear. They’re comfortable and good looking so you can wear them as a fan, but also as a style piece which is great.
PSG shirts are my favourite, I have a lot of them and I just mix them up!
What do you think of the new Nike Adapt BB?
It’s an amazing shoe, futuristic, comfortable. It really is a big time innovation from Nike and I’m really looking forward to wearing it on Thursday. I’ve practiced in it which was really exciting, I was one of the first athletes to do so and went out to Portland to trial it with a bunch of other young players so we were all just really excited about giving it a go and seeing what Nike have done. Just the fact that this technology is in there and it is still super comfortable – that’s amazing.
By offering a truly customisable fit thanks to the combination of an advanced power-lacing system, an app and continually updated firmware, the Adapt BB represents some amazing strides and potentially the future of sports footwear. With design influence often spilling across sports, it could only be a matter of time before we see this technology arriving in football.
