Anthony Davis may be adding another new line to his resumé this week.
The six-time NBA All-Star — who has been making headlines following Saturday’s news of his trade from the New Orleans Pelicans to the Los Angeles Lakers — is flexing his fashion and creative muscles with a unique partnership that has yielded a potato chip-inspired signature sneaker.
Davis was on hand at the NBA Store in New York today to unveil his new deal with Frito-Lay chip brand Ruffles, along with the shoes, The Ruffles Ridge Tops, designed by custom footwear maker The Shoe Surgeon.
Dubbed the first-of-its-kind “Chip Deal,” the partnership sees Nike-sponsored Davis — who offered “creative design input” — take his first big dip (pun intended) into shoe making. And he’s already garnered a few unexpected lessons.
“Sometimes you have all these crazy ideas and you want to just throw it on a shoe, but sometimes it doesn’t work and [they’re like] ‘you can’t put that on a shoe,’” Davis told FN. “I wouldn’t say it’s frustrating, but it was the most eye-opening thing about it, like ‘man, I can’t do that?’ At the end of the day, we were able to find some things that worked and drop some heat.”
Each Ruffles Ridge Tops sneaker was hand-made and features the blue and orange colors of the original Ruffles bag, plus interchangeable shoelaces inspired by the shades of various Ruffles flavors. A hidden pocket with a silver lining and ribbed accent near the heel of the shoe are intended to allude to the experience of opening a Ruffles bag and the silhouette of the ridged chip. Akin to the ingredients list on most food products, the tongue of the shoe features “Shoetrition Facts” detailing both the material and intangible elements on the shoe.
Davis, who was drafted into the NBA in 2012 after a storied college career at the University of Kentucky, said his fashion sense has “evolved tremendously” in his seven years of playing professional basketball.
“When I first came in fresh out of college, I was just wearing sweat suits. Then I started getting invited to all these top-notch things and I needed to have suits and kind of needed to have classier things — more grown-man things,” he told FN. “I started to build that look and it got better and better over the years.”
Davis’ limited-edition Ruffles collaboration is featured on the athlete’s “favorite Nike silhouette” — the “Dunk High.”
“I just love wearing Nikes. It’s been instilled in me for my whole life,” Davis said. “It’s the only shoe I ever wore my entire playing career. I just felt like it was right.”
From June 24 to Aug. 4, consumers who purchase a bag of Ruffles and enter the on-pack code will have a chance to win fashion and sports items daily, and the grand prize of a pair of the Ruffles and Davis-crafted sneakers.
