Five Times Athletes Broke Sneaker Uniform Rules
While athletes often sit at the top of social food chains, even they have to follow rules (well, most of the time). From Wimbledon’s all-white requirements to the NBA’s 51 per cent, some of the best and most influential sporting icons have been slapped with fines for not adhering to the uniform rules of the competitions. Some of them on purpose and others accidentally, here are five times athletes have broken sneaker uniform rules.
Michael Jordan’s Not-Quite-White Air Ships
The most well-known example of an athlete breaking uniform rules is of course when Michael Jordan was fined for wearing shoes that broke the NBA’s strict 51-per-cent-white rule. MJ had signed with Nike in 1984, and while they waited for the Air Jordan 1 to be developed, they gave him a pair of Nike Air Ship PEs that were completely red and black. The only problem was that they definitely didn’t adhere to the NBA’s white rulebook, and in February 1985, Nike were issued with a letter from the NBA reiterating the rules, along with $5000 fines for each time MJ wore them during a game. Nike didn’t back down from their design though and saw an opportunity to use the publicity as advertising fodder, so they instead paid every fine MJ was slapped with. The Swoosh invented the ‘Banned’ campaign with a television ad that depicts a sweaty MJ bouncing a basketball with the camera slowly panning towards the floor. On his feet was a pair of red and black Air Jordan 1s, which soon had black bars placed over them on-screen, with the voiceover message: ‘Fortunately, the NBA can’t stop you from wearing them. Air Jordans from Nike.’ While this advertising campaign showcased the black and red AJ1s, the original fines were for the Air Ships, and MJ actually only wore the black and red AJ1s just once on-court: at the 1985 Dunk Contest for All-Star Weekend. Nevertheless, the banned mythology was a genius marketing move from the Swoosh that boosted sales, and the debut Jordan racked up $162 million in its first year.
John McEnroe’s Non-Tennis Tennis Shoes
John McEnroe was the OG tennis bad boy, most well-known for his spat during Wimbledon. McEnroe broke plenty of rules in his time, and while this one wasn’t an official rule, it may as well have been since it came from Nike top dogs Peter Moore and Tinker Hatfield. Moore said, ‘I gave McEnroe the Air Trainer 1 and told him, “These are for you to do everything else but play tennis in. They’re not tennis shoes.” So he looks at them and goes, “These look pretty good. They’re different.” The next thing I know, this son of a bitch is wearing the shoes at Palm Springs in a tennis tournament. And he says, “Nike got me some new tennis shoes. They finally made a decent tennis shoe!” So I just about shit. I called McEnroe and he says, “That’s the best tennis shoe you assholes ever made!” I said “McEnroe, it’s not a tennis shoe!” He said, “It is now!"’. Soon enough, the Air Trainer 1 would also hit the court on fellow Nike athletes Andre Agassi and Mats Wilander – making it another very profitable rule break for the Swoosh.
Not Even Roger Federer Is Safe
Roger Federer is commonly considered one of the best tennis players in history, and unlike some of the other racket-bearers in this list, a ‘good boy’ of the sport. However, even he received a slap on the wrist from, you guessed it, Wimbledon in 2013. In line with his character, the Swiss maestro wasn’t blatantly breaking rules and probably didn’t even realise he was going to when he donned a pair of Nike Zoom Vapors in his first-round demolition of Victor Hanescu. The pair was indeed completely white, but only up top, as once Federer got into the swing of things, the bright orange sole flashed to the rule keepers. Somebody call Scotland Yard! In true Nike fashion though, they soon whipped up an advertisement that made light of the 'scandal'.
It’s the King or Nothing for Lothar Matthäus
Now regarded as one of the best midfielders of all time, then rising football star Lothar Matthäus was recruited to join FC Bayern Munich in 1984, one of Germany’s biggest clubs. However, tension soon built when Matthäus refused to wear boots from the team’s sponsor, adidas, as both of his previous clubs (FC Herzogenaurach and Borussia Mönchengladbach) were sponsored by PUMA. After wearing PUMA for the first six years of his professional career, he was devoted to their boots: ‘I come, but only if I can wear my PUMA King’. Matthäus also wore his PUMA Kings while representing the German national team, who were also sponsored by adidas. Even in the face of several fines, he continued wearing the PUMA King, and this loyalty set the foundation for other athletes to begin negotiating clauses in their contracts to wear boots from brands that aren’t from the team sponsor. It’s interesting that this rivals MJ’s banned mythology in a lot of ways, and yet it seems PUMA didn’t capitalise on it for their advertising.
An Expensive Pair of Air Jordan 1s for Nick Kyrgios
Another tennis bad boy, Nick Kyrgios is an Australian player who has reached eleven finals over the course of his career and is only the third player to have beaten each one of the Big Three (Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal) the first time he played against them. Despite his clever game, he is very controversial and has racked up $500,000 in fines for breaking the rules… One such time was in 2022 when he was grilled over his decision to wear red Air Jordan 1s and a matching cap before and after his match against Brandon Nakashima at Wimbledon. We can’t really fault anyone for wearing Jays – even if they don’t conform to Wimbledon's draconian dress code – but it became an expensive pair of kicks for Kyrgios, having been fined a whopping $16,000 for the red splash on the all-white attire. When asked about it post-game, all Kyrgios said was ‘I do what I want’. Kyrgios is not the first to cause a stir with his choice of footwear at the British grand slam (white sneakers only, people!), and probably won’t be the last.