It’s time to put some respect on Joel Embiid’s signature Skechers JE1 shoe

It’s time to put some respect on Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid’s latest signature sneaker, the Skechers SKX JE1.

You don’t have to love them, but before you hate them — solely because of the footwear company that makes them—consider Embiid’s path to the shoe, the resulting product, and its performance.

After his debut shoe, the Under Armour Embiid One, came and went from 2020 to 2024, the 7-foot center signed on as the face of Skechers’ new basketball division. For his next signature model, Embiid specifically asked for a low top, and Skechers fulfilled the 2023 NBA MVP’s request, delivering the first signature basketball shoe in brand history.

Since unveiling the shoe on court in late November, Embiid has been balling while playing in the lowest cut sneaker he’s worn during his 10-year NBA career. In 23 games lacing up the JE1, Embiid has averaged 28.3 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists, playing 33.2 minutes a game — after notably sitting out most of the past two NBA seasons.

Embiid, 31, is back — as the leading signature basketball headliner for the world’s third-largest footwear company — with a long-desired shoe design, and he’s playing at top form.

“This shoe means a lot, especially when you look at where I come from, everything that I’ve been through, and what it took to get here,” Embiid said in a statement provided by Skechers. “I always say, ‘My life is a movie.’ Everything happened so fast, one thing after another.

“Honestly, I wasn’t even supposed to be here. So, to be here now, with my own Skechers shoe, it just shows that people believed in me. And that feels great. It’s truly amazing.”

While there’s certainly a stigma surrounding Embiid often missing in action, the 76ers showed up — 20 minutes early — in early December for a special pre-launch event of the Skechers SKX JE1.

The activation was hosted at Lapstone & Hammer, Philadelphia’s premier sneaker and streetwear boutique, where, noticeably that day, the only shoes on display in the store were the black/blue/pink and lime green colorways of the JE1.

“It feels so great to be here,” said Embiid, sitting behind a desk in the back room of Lapstone, with his feet kicked up in the new shoes he inspired. He was waiting to autograph pairs purchased by the hundreds of Philly fans who pulled up to support their hometown hero.

Even Andrew James, Skechers’ senior footwear designer who crafted the JE1, had Embiid sign a shoe for him. The genuine moment bookended the design process of the brand’s first signature basketball shoe.

“He loves the shoe — and that’s all you want,” James told Andscape at Lapstone in December. “It also seems like people were excited to come to pick up a pair in support of him. So, it’s really an honor to be a part of this moment.”

The following day, on Dec. 4, 2025, the SKX JE1 was released globally at $130 per pair. And Embiid took the court that night on the official launch day of his new signature model.

Remember, the 76ers star, known as “The Process,” has been in this position before. Skechers is marking the third brand Embiid has repped since entering the NBA in 2014, and it’s his second signature shoe rollout. After spending the first four years of his career with Adidas on a standard player deal, Embiid landed a more prominent partnership with Under Armour in 2018.

By August 2020, at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UA Embiid One sneaker dropped. WearTesters, the sneaker review platform, dubbed the shoe “one of the better performers of 2021-22.” But performance-wise and aesthetically, the rugged-textured Embiid One seemed better suited to outdoor play, lacking the on- or off-court sleekness of its top rivals’ signature models.

Still, Embiid did it all in the UA Embiid One. According to kixstats.com, which analyzes sneakers worn by NBA and EuroLeague players, Embiid played 254 games in his debut signature shoes over four seasons. It’s the sneaker Embiid wore throughout his 2022-23 NBA MVP-winning season. He continued to wear the Embiid One for a few months after he and Under Armour parted ways in October 2023, ending their five-year partnership with one signature shoe.

Enter Skechers, which Embiid joined on a multiyear signature shoe deal in April 2024. He leads the brand’s basketball roster, which features fellow NBA players Julius Randle, OG Anunoby, Norman Powell, Isaiah Hartenstein, Terance Mann, Jabari Walker and Josh Green, as well as WNBA players Jackie Young, Rickea Jackson and Kiki Iriafen.

“I thought Skechers was different,” Embiid told Complex in late December. “I’ve been with two different brands, so I know about the shoe business a little bit. Just from our first conversations, trying to figure out what direction they were going in, it just felt like a match. … It just felt like Skechers represented me. That was the selling point.”

While promoting the Skechers SKX JE1, Embiid candidly described why the mid-cut UA Embiid One didn’t fit his standard for sneakers. It’s the same reason the high-top shoes he began his NBA career wearing — like the Adidas Light Em Up 2s — didn’t work for him, either. Simply put, Embiid’s basketball shoes were cut too high and weighed too much for most of his career.

That was until Skechers heard him out.

“I’ve always had big-man shoes,” Embiid told Complex. “But I’ve always felt like they’ve never matched the way I play the game. I like to be light on my feet and move kind of like a guard. The type of feel I wanted in my shoe … a low top.”

Perhaps most importantly, Embiid shared with the Skechers design team his lifelong passion for football — or soccer, as Americans call it — developed during his upbringing in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

Embiid, for the first time in his career, wanted to wear a tight-fitting, low-top shoe on court. He asked Skechers to design his debut signature basketball shoe to resemble a football boot. In April 2025, Skechers unveiled English star and Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane’s first signature boot. Eight months later, Embiid’s SKX JE1 shoe arrived.

“It all ties back to my story,” said Embiid in a statement. “Then, there’s the way I play the game, both as a basketball player and someone who grew up playing soccer. I like the tight fit of the shoe. All that came together in creating this shoe. They’re extremely comfortable, and also complement the way I play the game — the finesse combined with the aggressiveness I bring to the court. It was so important to make sure it’s not just comfortable but also performs the way it should.”

On Dec. 26, 2025, during a game against the Chicago Bulls, Embiid took the court wearing the JE1, with what appeared to be no-show socks or no socks at all. For whatever reason, the sight of Embiid presumably wearing no-shows sent basketball fans into a frenzy, and photos of his feet in the new signature shoes went viral.

Yet, Embiid dropped 31 points that night, marking one of his 10 total 30-plus-point performances (out of 23 games) in the JE1 since the shoe’s Nov. 30, 2025, on-court debut. It’s also worth noting that he’s worn long socks with the shoe all but that one time this season.

A few weeks later, Stephen Jackson, the retired NBA veteran turned co-host of the All The Smoke podcast, put Embiid on blast for not wearing socks, calling the moment “disrespectful to the game.”

C’mon, now. Let us not forget that even Michael Jordan played in super-low socks, particularly during his comeback with the Washington Wizards (2001-2003). And, just last year, Jackson called the lone signature model he received in his career — 2009’s Protege Stackjack — “the worst signature shoe ever.”

It deserves to be said that, out of the 34 active signature models being worn in the NBA this season, Embiid’s new shoe is far from the worst.

“The message I want to send with this shoe is that anything is possible,” Embiid said in a statement. “When you look at where I started, I wasn’t even supposed to play basketball. And now, here I am. I’m just so thankful for all the opportunities I’ve had.

“This shoe represents the belief that people had in me. It’s about showing that as long as you put the work in, you can achieve your goals — you can achieve anything you want. That’s what happened to me, and that’s what I want for others.”

Finally, Embiid has the exact shoe design he’s always wanted. So, let the man live. And let him keep cooking — with whatever socks he chooses to wear -– in his Skechers SKX JE1s.

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