Billionaire Kanye West had his Signature Yeezy Basketball Shoe banned by the NBA in 2018

Rap sensation Kanye West couldn’t break into the NBA sneaker world because of this one detail on his Yeezy Basketball Shoe

The NBA is a highly competitive league. Just like any other professional sports league, there are a lot of rules and regulations imposed on the players and the teams. One of the most significant rule is how every sneaker’s silhouette needs to be approved by the league office, before it can be worn in-game.

A lot of good kicks make their way to the NBA office. However, not all walk out with an approval. Rap sensation Kanye West learned the same the hard way in 2018.

In 2018, Kanye West, along with Adidas, came up with the first Yeezy Basketball shoe. He was very excited about the product he’d worked on for 3 years, which had seen some 300 changes.

over 300 samples and 3 years in the making and I give my pair to Ant Clemons for his Bday pic.twitter.com/wC7Ox5gs0P

— ye (@kanyewest) September 27, 2018

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Kanye West could never debut his Yeezy Basketball Shoe in the NBA

Before Kanye West could have an Adidas athlete don his Yeezy Basketball shoes, the NBA scrubbed them off the list of shoes approved for the season. Without even having to take a closer look at the sneaker, it is quite obvious what would have been the issue behind the sneaker.

According to Nick DePaula of ESPN, the problem was as follows,

“While the monochromatic sneakers won’t violate the league’s footwear color restrictions, the issue is the reflective “3M” heel panel, which the NBA would find potentially distracting for both in-arena spectators and television viewers.”

In 2018, the NBA banned Kanye’s Yeezy Basketball shoes because of their reflective “3M” heel panel, which the NBA would find potentially distracting for both in-arena spectators and television viewers. pic.twitter.com/f20wYDCcq4

— DubNation(2022 NBA CHAMPIONS) (@dubs3000) September 12, 2022

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While the silhouette and the color scheme of the shoes did not violate any restriction, the 3M panel led to Yeezy’s first basketball sneaker never seeing the light of day. However, since then, Ye has released multiple Yeezy Basketball sneakers.