The youngest player ever to have a signature shoe

If you know the Ball family this will not shock you: LaMelo Ball is releasing his own signature shoes with Slam, the Melo Ball 1. At age 16, he is becoming the first basketball player ever to have a signature shoe while still playing in high school. LaMelo is the youngest of the three Balls brothers, after the NBA draft of the oldest Lonzo this year by the Los Angeles Lakers and the entry of LiAngelo at UCLA, everything seems going according to the plan for the Big Ballers Brand (BBB), the most iconic family brand in NBA guided by LaVar.

The low-cut MB1 features a two-tone woven textile with a camouflaged one-piece knit upper. BBB is touting it as one of the lightest basketball sneakers on the market. The red heel, black upper and shoe tongue are all made up of suede material. The tongue is a distinctively thin layer, which came at the request of Melo to provide him with less weight and more freedom around his ankles. The MB1 comes in priced at $395 and is slated to reach homes during the Christmas holidays.

LaMelo Ball is projected to be one of the top athletes in the Class of 2019. In addition to that, with 2.4 million followers on Instagram alone, Melo already has a much larger following on social media platforms than the majority of NBA players. However, the signature shoe creates a problem for the young Ball: the NCAA (college basket league) states that "prospective athletes might affect their eligibility if they appear in a commercial or receive an endorsement before attending college". So the signature shoe could avoid Ball's future in college basket and make him eligible straight to the NBA, the NCAA said that a decision is up to coming for Lamelo.