Sneakerhead from South Florida who turned his passion into a career. When not writing for Sole Retriever, I enjoy attending concerts, catching the latest movies, and trying new food.
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It’s looking more and more likely that the WNBA season will either start late or not take place at all in 2026 due to negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement. The good news is that there is still time to work things out before the season’s planned start of May 8, but the deadline before things get pushed back is fast approaching. While this looms over the entire league, adidas and Indiana Fever star Aliyah Boston are planning on dropping Boston’s adidas DON Issue 7 PE next week.
Boston started the second half of the 2025 WNBA season in this special pair of Donovan Mitchell sneakers, but at the time, it was expected that the pair would remain a player-exclusive. The DON Issue 7 for Aliyah is done in an aqua blue hue across most of the textile upper, with lime green accents popping on the dotted Three Stripes, the zipper shroud, the Three Stripes on the heel, and a special Aliyah Boston logo on the tongue. Moving down, the blue midsole features the text “Why Are You Dreaming So Big,” and the midfoot shank comes with a gradient sunrise design going from orange to green.
Back in January, Aliyah and WNBA legend Candace Parker dropped an episode of their Post Moves podcast, which the two have been doing together since July of last year, and discussed the inspiration behind the player-exclusive DON Issue 7. “I feel like I always want to tell the story of growing up on the islands and what that was like,” Boston said to Parker, a fellow adidas athlete.
Aliyah further explains that the color choices were inspired by the water surrounding her home island of the Virgin Islands and the orange for the sunrise that she and her sister would see every Saturday morning during early workouts. As for the quote “Why Are You Dreaming So Big,” Boston tells a story of a man who would see her and her sister working out.
After explaining to him that she dreamed of playing for UConn and becoming a WNBA star, he told her to temper her dreams and try to go to a smaller school and shine. She placed it on the shoe as a reminder that you can try to achieve your goals no matter how lofty or out of reach they may seem.
The adidas DON Issue 7 Aliyah Boston PE will be released on March 1, 2026 through Dick’s Sporting Goods online and in-store. It’s possible the pair will also release via adidas, but that’s not confirmed at this time. Retail is set at $120. Check below for photos of the pair, and download the Sole Retriever mobile app to stay updated on the latest releases, raffles, news, and more in the sneaker world.
