Champions Way: A Knicks-Inspired Footwear Series
Celebrating victory, city pride, and New York movement
Independent concept designs only. Not affiliated with the New York Knicks, the NBA, or any related organization.
I met this moment not as a sports analyst, but as a designer and artist interested in how a cultural event can extend into the language of footwear through wit, form, color, proportion, and materiality.
Rather than designing team sneakers, I wanted to explore how the feeling of the Knicks winning this year’s championship could translate into women’s dress shoes as cultural objects: a netted stiletto sandal, a transparent courtside wedge, a trophy heel, a basketball-textured sandal, and other editorial concept pieces. The series explores wearable, sculptural, and slightly surreal forms through a lens of excitement and joy.
This project also arrived at a pivotal personal moment. After receiving tenure at the close of this spring semester, I wanted to make something that felt bold, celebratory, and alive. The Knicks color story became a visual language for that transition: orange and blue, contrast and movement, optimism and grit, all carrying the unmistakable attitude of New York.
Get Josephine Jee’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
These designs are monuments to a moment. Some are more exaggerated than others, but each one was created in response to the rhythm of the season, the anticipation of each win, and the emotional charge of watching a city believe again.
Net Stiletto Sandal
A commemorative stiletto sandal that turns the basketball net into both ankle support and ornament. Inspired by a championship more than fifty years in the making, and by New York’s iconic ticker-tape parades along Broadway’s Canyon of Heroes, the design captures the excitement of an impromptu citywide celebration, with Broadway momentarily christened as Champions Way.
Transparent PVC Courtside Wedge
An elevated sport-streetwear concept that plays with the optical illusion of a clear PVC upper. The transparent upper creates a feeling of openness, visibility, and exposure, while the wide ankle band, back zip, court-inspired wedge, and mid-heel height give the shoe a sturdy, grounded presence suited to New York’s walking culture.
Trophy Heel
A sculptural peep-toe platform that renders victory as a wearable object. While much of the series carries the vibrant color and movement of the game, this piece is restrained and ceremonial. It captures the symbolic moment when messy, sweaty, unseen work becomes institutional recognition.
Basketball Wedge Sandal
A graphic wedge with exaggerated proportions that turns the basketball’s texture and surface lines into the form of the shoe. The design approaches basketball as a larger-than-life cultural symbol, translating it almost literally into a feminine object of spectacle.
Lowrider Hoop Bootie
A lowrider bootie that reimagines the basketball hoop as the shoe itself. Responding to the current wide-mesh-flat trend, the piece also reflects the overlap between World Cup fervor in New Jersey and Madison Square Garden’s basketball-season commotion, turning sport culture into a surreal, lightweight object.
City Pride Square Toe Pump
A city-pride pump that translates New York fan energy through color blocking, dark-wash denim, charms, and a sport-coded novelty heel. Bridging masculine and feminine codes, the design pairs a bold square toe with ankle jewelry and sculptural hardware, inviting the high heel into a wider expression of masculinity, femininity, celebration, and city pride.
