The Nike Kobe 6 Dominated the 2021-22 NBA Season (and Other Interesting Shoe Statistics)

Sneaker statistics site Kixstats have crunched some numbers about the most popular and successful basketball shoes worn during the 2011-22 NBA regular season, and naturally there are some interesting figures.

Unsurprisingly, Nike topped all categories. At a top line view, NBA players wore Swoosh shoes 17,635 times. Second place was adidas with a mere 2699 appearances, who maintained a comfortable margin over Jordan Brand’s 1954.

Breaking down this data further reveals plenty of accolades shared between the Kobe 6 and PG 5, plus other popular models. The Kobe 6 led the charge in minutes played, logging a whopping 43,696 minutes on court, followed by the PG 5’s 37,641. The most points were also scored in the 6, racking up 20,022 followed by the 5’s 16,417. In fact, bar the Air Jordan 36’s eighth place and 8880 points, the top 10 scoring shoes were all Nike. Despite the healthy stat line of the Kobe 6, it was edged out by the PG 5 in terms of total appearances – 1885 to 1884. Super close.

While the numbers show that players clearly had footwear preferences, some were very flexible with their rotation. Montrezl Harrell wore 52 different pairs of shoes during the regular season – more than the combined total of Javonte Green’s and Deadre Bembry’s 21 and 20 respectively. And serial off-court flexer PJ Tucker was a bit more conservative in-game, only wearing 18 different pairs.

Check out the full breakdown of numbers on Kixstats.