The Best Adidas Signature Basketball Sneakers of All Time

Adidas signature basketball sneakers have seen some ups and downs over the years, but it appears that the line is on an upward trajectory as of late—in large part thanks to Anthony Edwards’ debut model, the AE 1. With the energy surrounding Edwards’ just-released AE 2, there’s no better time to look back at the best models in the line’s history.

The list includes classic signature models made for the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Dikembe Mutombo, as well as more recent releases like Anthony Edwards’ AE 1 and James Harden’s Harden Vol. 9.

To clarify how we ranked this top 15, we factored in storytelling, design, on-court appeal, off-court appeal, and the public’s reaction to the shoe. With that being said, this is our ranking for the best Adidas basketball signature shoes.

The 33 Best Adidas Sneakers of All Time, Ranked

The Most Comfortable Sneakers to Buy in 2025

Year: 2000

This is a love-it or hate-it shoe. The Adidas Kobe line, after KB8s, was divisive. The second one was so bad that it prompted Kobe to leave Adidas, so don’t hit me with the revisionist history. But the Kobe One was better than the two—especially the yellow colorway. It featured a foam upper with a shell toe and subtle embossed stripes on the side that showcased Adidas’ DNA in the shoe. The shoe has a round shape because it was designed by Audi designer Erik Lund Nielsen and was inspired by the Audi TT. Now ya know. —Matt Welty

Year: 2002

Tracy McGrady’s T-Mac 2 was my earliest memory of wanting any Adidas basketball shoe, and funny enough, it was because of LeBron James wearing a Saint Vincent-Saint Mary colorway of the shoe when he was still a high schooler and before he became a lifelong Nike athlete. For McGrady, though, the best colorways he wore matched the colors of his Orlando Magic uniforms in the early 2000s. T-Mac also wore two tonal makeups during the ’03 All-Star Game, including a red pair during the photoshoot and a blue iteration on the court. This silhouette may not be T-Mac’s top Adidas signature model on this list, but it is still one of the best from the Three Stripes. —Victor Deng

Year: 1993

Dikembe Mutombo was one of one. The big man from Congo was a shot-blocking menace. His deep voice and his finger wave are unforgettable. His signature shoes fit perfectly with his African heritage and the logo represented who he was. It featured a big 55 on the side for the big man, and was literally a big shoe—perfect for Mutombo. And it also went perfect with the old Nuggets uniforms. RIP to one of the greats. —Matt Welty

Year: 1978

The Jabbar Lo isn’t one of the more memorable models on this list but it’s one that’s in the middle of a resurgence right now thanks to collaborators like Wales Bonner and Willy Chavarria giving the shoe new life. The sneaker was first released in 1978 and was made for basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who was the first NBA player to sign an endorsement deal with the brand. The sneaker itself features a fairly standard low-profile design but given the history surrounding the model and the player it’s connected to, it deserves a spot on this list. —Victor Deng

Year: 2012

The D Rose 2 left a lot to be desired by many, but the follow-up D Rose 2.5 sneaker solved a lot of the issues voiced by fans. Visually, the predecessor featured a low-cut upper that didn’t offer much ankle support, but the initial rollout of the 2.5 came in a mid-top construction. Despite the upgrade, the sneaker was still very lightweight thanks to the upper’s SprintWeb build. For many fans, this is also the sneaker Derrick Rose was wearing when he suffered his career-altering ACL injury, but that shouldn’t diminish how good this silhouette was. —Victor Deng

Year: 2007

Low-top basketball sneakers are common now in the NBA, but Gilbert Arenas was an innovator with his line. Some people thought he was crazy for doing it, and maybe that’s true. He did a lot of things with footwear in the NBA, like wearing Dolce & Gabbana sneakers, that made people question his decisions. But the Gil Zero 2, aka the TS Lightswitch Gil, was revolutionary. It released in 20 different colorways, including streetwear and NBA Live collabs. While that doesn’t seem so crazy now, it just didn’t happen at the time. —Matt Welty

Year: 2010

The energy surrounding Derrick Rose during the early portion of his signature era was undeniable. After winning the league’s Rookie of the Year award in 2009, D Rose’s stardom in the NBA began to ascend, and a year later, Adidas released the Adizero Rose 1. Much like his game, the sneaker was flashy with its initial rollout of Chicago Bulls-themed colorways that used patent leather on the uppers. The sneaker also kicked off the era of lightweight performance basketball releases, with its Adizero construction that provided support on the upper without sacrificing performance and combined it with its thin SprintFrame and PureMotion tooling for a speedy build. This was clearly just the beginning for what was to come between Rose and Adidas, and a solid introduction to the D Rose line. —Victor Deng

Year: 1998

While there were certainly some misses in Kobe Bryant’s Adidas signature line, the KB8 2 was certainly not one of them. The sneaker released in 1998 during Bryant’s third year in the NBA, and by this time, he had established himself as one of the best young players in the league. The sneaker featured an aggressive design that incorporated the brand’s Feet You Wear (FYW) technology in the midsole, emphasizing the concept of natural motion. Adidas brought the sneaker back in 2014 and renamed it the Crazy 98 as a result of Bryant’s departure from the brand in the early 2000s. —Victor Deng

Year: 2006

Kobe Bryant is largely credited for bringing the low top signature basketball shoe to the masses, and that’s fair. But there’s subtlety in that wording. He wasn’t the first signature athlete to do it—Gilbert Arenas beat him to the punch by a couple years. And in fairness, Arenas also wasn’t the first either; there are examples even as early as the ‘70s with the Jabbar Low. But Arenas was the first in the modern era, and in the same era as Kobe. That shoe was the Adidas Gil Zero, and it was a moderate hit at the time that’s aged surprisingly well—particularly in the “historical significance” category as the predecessor to the low-top signature trend that’s still going so strong that it’s probably well past the “trend” label at this point. It even got in on the collab game at the time, and was included in a multi-shoe pack done by Undrcrwn.—Zac Dubasik

Year: 2024

The Adidas Harden Vol. 9, without a doubt, is the greatest James Harden sneaker of all time. It was born during one of the heights of Adidas basketball and fits perfectly with the brand’s new design ethos: black bootie-like liners with loud TPU overlays that come in a bevy of vibrant and eye-catching colors. The Adidas Harden Vol. 9 looks like it was sculpted in an auto body shop, and Harden even matches the color of his cars to the color of his shoes. The craziest part about the Vol. 9? The most memorable moment from its debut season didn’t even involve James Harden. It involved Jalen Williams and the ‘Pinky and the Brain’-inspired colorways he won the NBA Finals in, which is probably the best colorway of the model. —Ben Felderstein

Year: 2025

When the Adidas AE 1 dropped, the success was immediate. It restored a long lost feeling of rocking hoop shoes with jeans, it brought basketball sneaker marketing back, and it was the 2024 sneaker of the year. This all meant that the AE 2 had some serious shoes to fill (pun most certainly intended), following up quite possibly the best signature sneaker debut in over two decades. We are in the infancy stages of the 2, but for my money, all signs are pointing to a successful sequel. Is it as good as the 1? No. Is it the sneaker of the year? Also, no. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s a damn good sneaker and already a top 5 signature Adidas Basketball shoe of all time. Early colorway leaks and previews paint an encouraging picture of what’s to come. This time next year when we’ve seen the lifecycle of the 2 play out, there’s a better chance we’re talking about an increase in its position rather than a fall. —Ben Felderstein

Year: 2011

The Adidas D Rose 1 came first, but the D Rose 1.5 is the one. While the two models shared a tooling, the uppers were considerably different. Rather than using the decoupled collar from the 1, the 1.5 brought the height of the sneaker to a full high cut. The result was a more traditional style that also featured better breathability thanks to the Sprintskin panels. The design also allowed for the toebox to be segmented and highlighted with contrasting colors, which became the update’s signature look. Derrick Rose’s MVP career left us with a lot of “what ifs” had injuries not derailed it multiple times, but there’s not much question which of his sneakers was the best. —Zac Dubasik

Year: 2004

Nowadays, we’ve seen a lot of mismatched shoes. But one of the first to do it on such a major stage was Tracy McGrady. When he pulled up to the 2004 NBA All-Star Game, he was wearing one red, one blue pair of TMac 3s. The moment is forever cemented in sneaker history. Packer Shoes flipped this into an actual release in 2014. TMac is a big “what could have been” player in the NBA, but the same can be said for his sneaker line, too. Because this is a certified classic. —Matt Welty

Year: 2024

Could Anthony Edwards’ first Adidas signature model have been number one on this list? We certainly discussed it. From a purely design standpoint, it might have taken the crown. Add to that the memorable marketing campaign, viral moments both on and off the court, and 2024 sneaker of the year honors, and it’s hard to find much holding it back. Well, other than the fact that in 2025, the 2024 sneaker of the year—no matter how good it may be—just hasn’t built enough longevity to earn the top spot on a list like this. All those poster dunks count for something though, and even though it’s not number one, number two is a heck of an accomplishment for a new model from a brand that hadn’t exactly been setting the world on fire with its signature lines in recent memory. Even that feels like it’s changing—on top of being a great sneaker in and of itself, the Adidas AE 1 is also representative of a promising new era from Adidas Basketball. —Zac Dubasik

Year: 1997

Some might have thought it was going to the AE 1 in this spot. But come on. As big as that shoe was, Adidas had Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant! I know his Nike work is infinitely more loved, but the Crazy 8 (as Adidas calls it now) is a special shoe. It features Feet You Wear cushioning on the midsole, which later reappeared on the Adidas Yeezy 500. The black upper with purple hits, the black and white midsole—the shoe looks futuristic. The model was designed by James Carnes. I remember talking to him at an Adidas event and he told me how when he was just an intern he had the idea and went into the sample room and put the shoe together. And now we have history. But it’s memories of the young, high-flying Kobe Bryant on court that really made the shoe a thing of sneaker lore. —Matt Welty

Read the full article here