words & images // Nick DePaula:
At the start of the 2000s, the Adidas Pro Model 2G was perhaps one of the more widespread worn sneakers in the country, as the no frills $75 team shoe graced the feet of everyone from middle school hopeful hoopers to suburban high school squads to #1 ranked AAU players and ABCD campers like LeBron James and Lenny Cooke.
The shoe enjoyed a dominant run through the first half of the decade, showing up in simple home white colorways with team color accents, and later exploding in bold full patent leather looks. Then, they simply went away for more than a decade, as the brand tried unsuccessfully to modernize the 2G’s design a few times over, before switching gears and launching a new batch of Team Signature models towards the end of the 2000s.
After breaking out his own player exclusive pair of the Top Ten 2000 earlier in the season, the ever-stylish Nick Young became the perfect player to debut the re-make nearly twenty years after its original run and add the Pro Model 2G to his Adidas sneaker rotation.
In a clean white upper with alternating blue and yellow stripe logo hits, his size 14 pair also features his “Swaggy P” pyramid logo along the tongue, as “STILL SWAGGY” text replaces the commonly found “PRO MODEL” phrasing along the side of the shoe.
“Haven’t seen or hooped in a pair of Pro Models since AAU and high school in 2003-2004,” Young captioned on Instagram after first debuting them. “So many memories.”
Check out Swaggy P’s latest player exclusive from Adidas below, and stay tuned for more detailed looks at his batch of custom pairs for this season.
