Senior footwear designer at Nike Basketball Ben Nethongkome says it took 18 months to make the Nike Kyrie 6, Kyrie Irving’s newest signature shoe. When it comes to the NBA, 18 months is a very long time. With Kevin Durant on the team, the Golden State Warriors were unbeatable 18 months ago. Irving was a lock to re-sign with the Boston Celtics, and the Brooklyn Nets were having a hard time winning games. The all-seeing eye on the Kyrie 4 signature shoe’s pull tab couldn’t have told us where things are now.

Irving and Nethongkome had a few big ideas for this signature shoe, which they talked about in the most recent episode of Signature Sneakers. Irving was very interested in honoring his heroes, especially Michael Jordan. “The most important thing in this shoe compared to the others is, literally, just comfortability,” says Irving. It was my idea of what the top of a Jordan 2 would look like on a basketball shoe made in 2019. Picture putting on shoes that you can just slip on and off. They would be the most relaxing thing you could wear.

Sure, it’s a Kyrie Irving shoe, so there must be some deep thoughts behind it. There are a lot of hidden meanings in the 11 colorways that aren’t black. Each one is named after a city that Irving has visited and felt an effect on him.

“When you’re on the path of self-mastery or enlightenment, you’re going to come into contact with different symbols, different theologies, philosophies, religions, ideologies, and all of it is just knowledge,” says Irving. “When you meet knowledge with understanding, then that turns into wisdom.”