Shai Gilgeous-Alexander keeps the family close on heartfelt Converse SHAI 001 pack

This year couldn’t have been scripted more perfectly for NBA superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

The 27-year-old point guard captured the NBA scoring title, averaging 32.7 points per game during the 2024-25 regular season. That was before being named the league MVP and, ultimately, the NBA Finals MVP after leading the Oklahoma City Thunder to the franchise’s first championship.

SGA did it all while laced in his debut signature sneaker, the Converse SHAI 001, which officially hit retail in early September, leading with the silhouette’s distinct yellow “BUTTER” colorway.

Today, the shoe arrives in three fresh colorways, inspired by his wife, Hailey, his younger brother, Thomasi, and his mother, Charmaine.

After wearing all three versions of the SHAI 001 on his historic run through the 2025 NBA playoffs, SGA’s “FAMILY” pack releases globally for $130 a pair, punctuating a strategically orchestrated and equally serendipitous yearlong rollout of his first shoe.

“The SHAI 001 is a canvas for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s story,” reads the opening line of the collection’s press release, introducing the new editions of the shoe, dubbed “HAIL CLAY,” “MASI BLUE” and “CHARM BLACK.”

On Sept. 4 — several hours after the “BUTTER” SHAI 001 first dropped, and sold out on Converse’s website within minutes — SGA made an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to share the straightforward, yet heartfelt, storytelling behind the trio of colorways that pay tribute to the people closest to him.

“This is my wife’s eye color. This is my brother’s favorite color. And my mom’s entire closet is black, like pitch black, and I’m not joking,” said Gilgeous-Alexander on The Tonight Show. 

In February, the Boston-based subsidiary brand of Nike officially unveiled the SHAI 001, which Gilgeous-Alexander debuted on and off court throughout the 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend. Less than a year had passed since SGA agreed to a multiyear contract extension with Converse in April 2024, after initially becoming the new face of basketball’s oldest footwear brand in 2020.

The renewed partnership elevated Gilgeous-Alexander to the unprecedented role of creative director of Converse Basketball, giving him full control over the design process of his debut signature shoe, which notably began with his personal sketch of the concept for the silhouette.

Together, Converse and SGA cooked up the SHAI 001, crafting a futuristic unibody mold, featuring a puffed upper and winged shroud that locks down with a zipper. Uniquely, SGA’s first signature silhouette delivered a monochromatic look, immediately separating itself from just about every other current signature basketball shoe that comes in a multicolored design

“Shoutout the Converse team for executing, ’cause the shoe looks way better than the sketch,” Gilgeous-Alexander told Fallon.

During an exclusive media briefing ahead of the shoe’s initial February announcement, one reporter ended a group interview with Gilgeous-Alexander by asking if he had any specific plans for differentiating the colorways of the Converse SHAI 001. 

“You’ll have to stay tuned and watch closely. You’ll get your answers soon enough,” said Gilgeous-Alexander with a big smile.

Following All-Star Weekend, Gilgeous-Alexander exclusively laced up his model’s lead colorway, aka the SHAI BUTTER, for the second half of the 2024-25 regular season. While keeping the next colorways for the SHAI 001 close to the vest, SGA also kept family — and friends — close in mind for a masterplan to continue rolling out his sneakers.

On March 31, superstar rapper Drake dropped a music video for his smash hit track, “Nokia,” featuring his homie and fellow Ontario, Canada, native, Gilgeous-Alexander. At the 2:37 mark of the song’s black-and-white visuals, SGA appears with a collection of single shoes, noticeably in five different shades, hanging from his neck by their laces. 

According to a Converse rep, the cameo of the SHAI 001 in the “Nokia” video was SGA’s idea, which manifested from his personal relationship with Drake, who also helped Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker unveil his debut signature shoe, the Nike Book 1, in 2023.

Converse ensured that Gilgeous-Alexander received early pairs of the SHAI 001 in every colorway for him to wear and use as he saw fit. Behind the scenes, the brand developed an official promotional strategy for the FAMILY pack.

The three-second stretch of SGA with his SHAI 001s in the “Nokia” video — fittingly tracked to the lyrics, “Take a pic for the ’Gram, show the whole world” — serves as a subtle shoutout to the 1984 photoshoot featuring a young Michael Jordan with a sample pair of the OG Air Jordans hanging from his neck by their laces. Nike used the imagery to promote the silhouette that forever changed basketball and sneaker culture.

Similar to Jordan, wearing his debut shoe laced around his neck would become a trademark visual of Gilgeous-Alexander by the end of the 2024-25 NBA season, which yielded many firsts for the superstar, including a signature model, a league scoring title, an NBA MVP, a Finals MVP, and a championship ring. 

Converse bet big on Gilgeous-Alexander, who became the brand’s first signature headliner in 15 years with the “BUTTER” SHAI 001, while slating him to unveil four new colorways of the shoe throughout the 2025 NBA playoffs. Yet, to get through them all, SGA needed to lead the Thunder to the NBA Finals — and he did just that.

“Shai’s journey to the Finals and winning the MVP award has been nothing short of extraordinary,” Rodney Rambo, Converse’s global chief marketing officer, told Andscape in June. “As a brand for creators, we’ve always known Shai moved differently. His unmatched creativity, both on and off the court, sets him apart.”

In a first-round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies, Gilgeous-Alexander debuted the “ARES GRAY” SHAI 001, inspired by his 1-year-old son’s eyes. However, the colorway would ultimately not be included in the FAMILY pack, with no plans from the brand for it to hit retail.

While facing the Denver Nuggets during the Western Conference semifinals, SGA unveiled the “CHARM BLACK” colorway as a nod to his mom. Then came a rust orange look with the “Hail Clay” colorway, giving flowers to his wife Hailey, for both his NBA MVP Award ceremony speech and the Thunder’s conference finals series against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Lastly, Gilgeous-Alexander rocked the “MASI BLUE” SHAI 001, designed in his brother’s favorite color, during all seven games of the NBA Finals series between the Thunder and Indiana Pacers. To commemorate the moment of SGA joining the exclusive company of about a dozen players in NBA history to win the Finals in their debut signature shoe, Converse crafted a special “Trophy Gold” player-exclusive edition of the SHAI 001 for him.

The brand sent the custom colorway to Thomasi Gilgeous-Alexander, who tied each shoe together by their laces and placed them around his big brother’s neck at the end of the Thunder’s 103-91 Game 7 win, before SGA hoisted the Larry O’Brien trophy and Bill Russell Finals MVP trophy.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished his 2024-25 NBA campaign with 3,172 total points combined between the regular season and playoffs, marking the most since the 1992-93 season, when Jordan scored 3,207 points.

SGA’s storybook year set the stage for the Converse SHAI 001’s long-anticipated retail release, which he celebrated by going on The Tonight Show, marking a moment that felt eerily reminiscent of Jordan’s May 19, 1986 appearance on Late Night with David Letterman to promote OG colorways of the iconic Air Jordan 1.

Nearly four decades later, family became the formula to help Gilgeous-Alexander showcase the Converse SHAI 001 to the world. 

“They said I sold out in minutes,” wrote Gilgeous-Alexander on Instagram the day after his shoe dropped. “I don’t gotta hold out, soon as they roll out they’re finished.”

It was a big year for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who delivered one of the best rollouts of a debut signature shoe that basketball has seen.