Deion Sanders renewed relationship with Nike comes to fruition on June 14

Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes are well taken care of by Nike. That was not always the case, and for a time there was a brand debate. As Coach Prime made his way from Jackson State, there were questions around who would outfit Prime’s new team. There was a well-documented ‘falling out’ between Sanders and the heads of Nike. For his entire time post-fallout, including his time at JSU, Prime was dedicated to Under Armour because of his relationship with CEO Kevin Plank. Since coming to Boulder, the relationship with the world’s biggest outfitter has since been repaired with Sanders and they are thriving. What comes next is just another great marketing move by one of the game’s best. The reintroduction of the Nike Air Diamond Turf 3. A shoe that would change the game forever.

In 1993, at the beginning of Sanders’ playing prime, the high-stepping genus and Nike collaborated to create his first signature shoe in line. The Diamond Turf 1 was the original and brought a different style to the market. Two years later, the design would shift and give way to the Nike Air Diamond Turf 3. It was the first shoe of its kind and came a mere nine years after Nike’s first ever signature shoe with any sort of global sales success, the Air Jordan 1. Even in ’93, as Nike was entering what is now considered their Renaissance, they were not that far removed from being a company that only worried about Olympians and runners. The days of finding the next version of Steve Prefontaine or Carl Lewis.

In the early 1980s, Nike was a basketball and football afterthought. At the time the sneaker giants were Adidas and Converse. Pony had a cup of coffee and even ProKeds had a little run, but the giants were featuring three stripes and stars. They followed a model where every signature athlete wore the same shoes, but in different colors. That’s why even today, you can find black/white or purple/yellow Converse Weapons, the shoes Larry Bird and Magic Johnson wore respectively.

The big Nike signature athlete in the early 90s to follow the rise of Jordan was tennis star Andre Agassi. Nike was thinking differently as early as 1984 with the Jordan 1. Designing one shoe for every signature athlete to wear just didn’t make good business sense. It started with Jordan, but would become a staple of their signature lines for the foreseeable future. Design the shoe around the athlete in question. Before Nike began to think that way, most shoes fit a similar structure and shape.

If you’re going to design a shoe around an athlete, and you have Sanders, you should not design that shoe like everything else. Prime Time as a player was special, and that’s because he could move in ways other players before him simply couldn’t. The Diamond Turf 1 and Diamond Turf 2 were nice shoes, but they were siblings of one another. All Diamond Turf shoes share a similar outsole. They all utilize a forefoot strap to control the fit and lateral support. All are mids or highs. There is no such thing as a Diamond Turf low, but give Nike time they might make it. The outsole has sections designed to trap air to minimize slipping (on a court) and minimizing give laterally. Those are basketball shoe concepts. A shoe that maximizes Deion’s quick twitch and cut on a dime agility all but requires the designers to consider basketball concepts. The shoe still must function as a football cleat though. Which is why Deion’s comments at a Nike event around the Super Bowl when he stated he wants his players wearing football shoes not basketball shoes, was a very curious comment.

When Nike designed the Diamond Turf 3, they were sure to maintain certain design motifs, while expanding the shoe structurally to be something much more than the DT1 and DT2. They scaled back the arch material that moves up a quarter of the shoe’s height. The toe box is leaner and lighter. The forefoot section of the outsole also is more flexible than its predecessor. The lacing system is slightly stronger. The biggest difference is instead of a thick polyurethane midsole under the heel, they opted to include the then revolutionary, “Max Air heel”. This allows for better response on a thinner sole.

All those things are basketball shoe concepts. The structure of the upper is where it maintains its ‘football shoe’ identity. The designs moving up the sides that resemble flames are an aesthetic design choice but also a structural one. Each one of which has its own stitching providing even more lateral support as you move through the upper. In no uncertain terms, the Nike Air Diamond Turf 3 is in fact the first real Football/Basketball hybrid shoe of its kind. For the sneakerheads reading this, how often do you see a football player wearing a cleat version of a basketball shoe? It’s almost all of the time now, thanks to Nike, Sanders and the Air Diamond Turf 3.

The near decade between 1984-92, Nike was in their bag design wise with the Jordan 1-7. Each one is a dramatic shift from the one before it. However, by the time they got to 1992 they had created some great features with power. The Nike Air Huarache gave birth to the “inner sock” that would make its way into the Jordan 7 (also worn during Jordan’s Dream Team run) and beyond. The sturdy woven pull tab or loop had been a staple at this point. As well as the almost perfected ‘speed lacing system’ that would be found in most Nike basketball, cross trainers and even some running shoes of that time. All of which are found in the Diamond Turf 3. Even the “Diamond Turf” logo was Nike on another level. Deion played both football and baseball so why not jam a football goal post into a baseball home plate. Whoever came up with that was a genius.

As previously mentioned, 1992-98 marked the greatest era of performance footwear we have ever seen, and it has not been matched since. This era gave way to the biggest signature shoes of our time and they are still shoes sneakerheads hunt for to this day. Nike will release the Nike Air Diamond Turf 3 to the global public on June 14. It comes out of the vault for the first time since 2013.

In addition to the DT3’s, that period also brought us the Charles Barkley “CB” line, the Penny Hardaway line that includes the grail, the Foamposite One. The Scottie Pippen line which would give way to the much larger Nike Air Uptempo line. However, the next closest shoe to the Nike Air Diamond Turf 3 belongs to another baseball player. The Ken Griffey line. Still today, arguably the best all-around baseball shoe made. Almost every single design feature structurally, is taken from Diamond Turf 3. The Griffey Max 1 would debut in 1996, just after the DT3. Another that followed suit would be the Nike Air Zoom Turf Jet, a shoe designed for Barry Sanders. They added a ‘turf sole’ that is no longer used, but most of the other features were at least inspired by the DT3.

As we look out across the athletic shoe landscape, we can begin to see football cleats that look more like a basketball shoe than a cross trainer. All thanks to the Diamond Turf 3. The need to make a shoe specifically for Deion Sanders and his abilities literally paved the way for every other football cleat that followed.

The June 14th release date is more than just another signature shoe drop. It marks the return of a quintessentially one important to shoe culture. It paved the way for most of what followed. Not just football cleats either. The Lebron XVII was released five years ago, and they did make a Diamond Turf 1 version of that shoe. Then last year, Lebron wore a Lebron XXII at the All-Star game colored as if it was a DT3. This is only the beginning from the details being leaked out. The original blk/wht/maize drops first.

Later in the summer, we expect to see the requested, “Colorado Home” and “Colorado Road” colorways that will bring the CU mineral gold to the original. A black shoe with gold flames and white shoe with gold flames to match the CU uniform perfectly. You’ll want to circle your calendars. The holiday season of 2024 will introduce the “Falcons” colorway which is 85% black and charcoal grey with red trim. With every colorway having a Deion specific story.

The lead up to the 2024 football season starts this month. Everyone should try to get your hands on a pair of Nike Air Diamond Turf 3s. It was a moment in time that paved the way for so many shoes that followed.