Sneaker Rivals: Las Vegas Aces vs Indiana Fever

We were one game away from having a totally normal WNBA Playoff match-up in the first round between the Indiana Fever and the Atlanta Dream. It would have been a postseason rubber match featuring Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese after they split their first two meetings in the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and 2024.

Despite a nice respite from the “discourse” during Team USA’s FIBA Women’s World Cup championship run that highlighted Clark and Reese not only gelling on the court, but sticking up for each other in the media as well, a loud section of the internet still wants to believe that the two can’t stand each other. Fortunately for the fans who just want to watch the basketball, but unfortunately for the WNBA marketing department and the television executives daydreaming about record-breaking numbers, the “discourse” will have to wait and see if the two rivals can string together a few victories and lead their teams to the WNBA Finals

Instead of Clark and Reese serving as proxies for Nike and Reebok, we are getting an interbrand battle between newly minted Nike signature athlete Clark and the Fever against fellow Nike signature shoe athlete A'ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces. Sadly, this pairing also has a deeply frustrating and mostly fabricated history online, as both Wilson’s and Clark’s respective fandoms have occasionally pointed the finger at the other side as to why it took so long for their favorite to receive a Nike signature shoe.

Knowledgeable people in the industry can point to so many reasons as to why these sneakers take so long to get to market, but the most logical and reasonable explanation is also the most banal and doesn’t generate clicks: these things take time to go from concept art to the most anticipated Nike signature shoe debut in a very long time. It’s a lot easier for one side to claim the other side sabotaged them or that there is jealousy behind the scenes. The moment one shows even the slightest hint of a microaggression towards the other during this series, it’s going to be pandemonium on social media.

And this is the type of battle for attention the rest of the principals in this series will have to contend with. Here’s hoping the way brands do that is by featuring them in social clips and giving them hot player exclusives that people will be talking about.

Las Vegas Aces (#3)

Rotation: A’ja Wilson (Nike), Jewell Lloyd (Nike), Chelsea Gray (adidas), Jackie Young (Skechers), Brianna Turner (Nike), NaLyssa Smith (Puma)

Has the Nike A’Two been a worthy successor to the A’One? Second signature shoes have a spotty history when it comes to replicating the success of the original. The Nike A’One was buzzworthy from the moment they were first revealed to the immediate sellout of the debut colorways. While the design received plenty of plaudits, it also helped that the sneaker was affordably priced at $110 before it eventually settled at $115 thanks to the then-brand-new tariffs. Parents want to be able to provide their aspiring young hoopers and A’ja fans with her sneakers, and introducing them at that price point was a smart way to bring them into the ecosystem.

When A’Two dropped, the price tag went up, the design was more hoops-focused (any sneaker that drops a new colorway that reminds people of Foamposites is going to be more hoops-focused by default), and Wilson was becoming so good that it became routine and comfortable. The new set of colorways was great, and player exclusives got people talking, but not in the same droves that the A’One did. If nothing else, she has kept on delivering on player exclusives that reveal her youngest millennial bona fides.

When you earn the nickname Point Gawd, you might be entitled to your own specialized mismatched adidas Crazy Energy player exclusive that celebrates your fourth WNBA championship. And unlike other Ring Ceremony PEs that end up being a one-night-only deal for some in the NBA (Ray Allen comes to mind), Chelsea Gray has allowed us to see her silver and gold PEs all throughout the regular season, along with a handful of other colorways and PEs of the Crazy Energy. Hopefully, adidas has more in store for the playoffs.

Look, we’re not saying that Jackie Young needs to tip-in a game winner in the WNBA Finals to get on OG Anounoby’s level at (checks notes) Skechers, but the standards have definitely changed. She rocks the same SKX sneakers as OG, so the sneaker comparison is going to be there, but hopefully her moment will come as well.

Meanwhile, Jewell Lloyd, aka the Gold Mamba, took an interesting detour during the final week of the season. Instead of the Kobes and GT Cuts and the occasional A’One PE that we’re used to seeing from Lloyd, her sneaker of choice as of late has been the Nike Air Zoom HyperAce 3, a model made for a different kind of court in volleyball. Maybe the traction pattern on the HyperAce works better for her, and was giving it some gametime to see if it’s something she should push for in the future. Rounding out the starters and the sixth player are Brianna Turner with her Nike Book 2s and NaLyssa Smith with her custom Chrome Hearts PUMA MB.01s.

Indiana Fever (#6)

Rotation: Caitlin Clark (Nike), Kelsey Mitchell (Puma), Lexie Hull (Nike), Aliyah Boston (adidas), Sophie Cunningham (adidas), Makayla Timpson (Nike)

Not that the Sole Retriever offices are biased or anything, because Lexie Hull graciously allowed us into her residence to give us a sneaker closet tour, but it would be silly of us not to acknowledge that it happened and to coincidentally embed it here for everybody to check out.

Everything that needs to be said, and in a lot of cases doesn’t need to be said, about the Nike Caitlin 1 will be widely discussed over the next year until we get to the Nike Caitlin 2. It’s going to be fun, but it’s also going to be exhausting as everybody makes the Caitlin 1 to be both end-all and be-all to Nike’s future while others belittle its potential impact on the younger generation who want to rock the kicks of their favorite hooper. All we’re asking for are more fire colorways and a Taylor Swift cameo at a playoff game, which might just be limited to one game if the Aces have their way in this first round.

Seeing the Fever drop down to the #6 seed was a little shocking considering they have two legitimate MVP candidates in Clark and Kelsey Mitchell. Puma and Tyrese Haliburton have to be over the moon excited that they brought on Mitchell earlier this year to be the face of the Hali signature line in the WNBA. Has there ever been a scenario where a player signed to another player’s brand wins an MVP ahead of the player with the brand? We just might find out sooner than later.

Adidas has supported both Aliyah Boston and Sophie Cunningham with the brand’s best this season from two different perspectives. Boston and Cunningham wore the adidas Crazy Energy and the AE Believe That throughout the regular season, with Cunningham’s Crazy Energy PE selling out to her newfound audience that may or may not care about basketball. Boston has taken on a Kelsey Mitchell-like role for Donovan Mitchell’s signature DON line (her DON player exclusives have gotten retail drops) while still having time to be one of the first to rock the adidas Anthony Edwards 3 on the court.

Although she’s only in her second season in the league, Makayla Timpson has become a valuable role player for the Fever and a great sixth player to add to the rotation as she has worn the Nike Ja 3 for much of the regular season before swapping into her teammate’s signature kicks to close out the year.

Historical Matchup: Los Angeles Sparks vs Houston Comets (1999 WNBA Western Conference Finals)

Clark and Wilson will mark the first playoff match-up between WNBA players with Nike signature shoes since the 1999 WNBA Western Conference Finals when Lisa Leslie and the Los Angeles Sparks took on Sheryl Swoopes and Cynthia Cooper of the Houston Rockets. Unless there is a book or a podcast detailing beef among the three about their respective signature shoes, the three icons and Hall of Famers kept their battles strictly on the court.

While Leslie recently made sneaker headlines when her statue was unveiled, and the shoes of choice were the Nike Total Air 9, she was already onto the next thing in 1999 with the Nike Air Max L9, a deep cut in Leslie’s sneaker history. Swoopes was already on her fifth sneaker in 1999 with the Nike Air Tuned Swoopes V - a surprisingly very well-regarded sneaker in the Nike archives - while Cooper was debuting her long signature shoe, the Nike Air C14.

Juan Martinez

From video game journalism to veteran of the sneaker blog era to podcasting about well, everything, Juan is smiling through it all and can't believe this is his life. His current hot take is that people are really underrating the Psyduck trading card market. Email: juan@soleretriever.com Instagram | Twitter | Bluesky | Threads : @ezyville