J. Cole Makes Chinese Basketball League Debut in Unreleased Signature Sneaker

Kendrick and Drake beef bronze medal winner slash bicyclist slash musician slash professional basketball player J. Cole has been chasing his hoop dreams for a few years, with his latest shot at glory taking him to the Chinese Basketball Association. Yesterday, he made his debut for the Nanjing Monkey Kings of the CBA, and while he didn't stuff the stat sheet, he did make it a notable matchup by lacing up his long-awaited Indie 5000 sneakers.

After leaving PUMA in 2024, Cole recruited a team of Italian designers to launch his own sneaker brand. Well, maybe not a brand, but at least one sneaker. And a couple of months ago, he let everyone know they were almost ready to launch, but there was an issue with the box and he was deciding whether to launch them with the typo-inflicted packaging or spend the time and money to fix the problem.

“Appreciate the love, and Indie 5000 is ready to go! We made them independently, been working on them for 4 years. Designed them with some Italian designers I work with. They are finished, manufactured, and ready to go,” Cole said in an AMA on Inevitable, his direct-to-fan website. “We have a small mistake on the boxes, so right now it's either get all the boxes reproduced, or embrace the mistake and put them out. Either way. They will be on sale soon. Appreciate it.”

During his CBA debut, we got our best look yet at the Indie 5000s, an angular mix of leather, suede, and intricte embroidery that comprise a retro-looking sneaker from the future, if that makes sense.

While at PUMA on a multiyear deal, J. Cole dropped two shoes, the RS-Dreamer and its sequel, the RS-Dreamer 2 befor embarking on his own signature sneaker journey with the Indie 5000s.

No word yet on an official release date or pricing yet for Jermaine's kicks but with the shoe taking nearly five years to make and the going rate for Italian designers and the fact that he can't be making much playing ball in China and with his Honda breaking down constantly, we can guess they're going to cost a pretty penny.

Drew London

Drew oversees content at Sole Retriever and hates writing in the 3rd person soooo I'm going to stop. I've written for countless blogs and magazines, from Complex to XXL and everywhere in between. Spent a long time in LA, running content and working on branded collabs at The Hundreds. Now, I'm back home on the East Coast freezing my ass off. Email me at drew@soleretriever.com with scoops, story ideas, and size 13 heat.