During the Phoenix Suns' media day on Monday, Sept. 28, Devin Booker wore a pair of his new Nike Book 2 "Futura" signature shoes.
The next day, he posted a photo reel on Instagram showing the shoes, designed by award-winning contemporary art painter and hip hop pioneer, Lenny "Futura" McGurr.
The shoe's abstract design is unlike other Nike Book 1 and 2 models, which featured solid colorways, with occasional brand or sports team logos emblazoned near the shoe's heel.
The "Futura" shoes' white-based upper is filled with vibrant, multicolored representations of atomic spheres, blotches of primary colors blended and scattered on the upper. Also, Futura's graffiti tag font of the word "Book" is etched on the shoe's tongue and outsole.
"I went to his
studio maybe three of four years ago during Fashion Week in New York," Booker said at the Suns' media availability on Sept. 30, about how he first met Futura. "It's over there in Brooklyn and I got to go through his collections. His collections of camouflage, his Lego collection, I got to see it all first-hand."
Known by his graffiti artist name "Futura 2000," the 70-year-old Futura rose to fame for his abstract expressionist style during hip hop's formative years in New York during the 1970s-80s. His aerosol-painted murals were seen on subway cars, street walls and canvases exhibited in art galleries worldwide.
Futura also has designed imagery for streetwear and major clothing brands such as Supreme and Levi's, collectible toys, sneakers and album cover artwork for rock bands The Clash, Deftones and 1990s trip-hop group Unkle.
Booker said that he invited him to a Suns game and he painted a piece for Booker at his warehouse in Phoenix in 2024. That painting became the template for his Book 2 "Futura" shoe design.
"We just brought that idea to Nike to make a shoe off of the piece that he made for me, and it's one of my favorites to this day," Booker said.
Similar to Booker's McDonalds collaborative Book 2 "Sedona" model limited release in May, he requested Nike to have at least a limited release of "Futura" shoe, which has yet to come out.
"I definitely don't want it to be just for me," Booker said with a smile when he was asked if the "Futura" shoe would be player edition-only or sold at retail. "At the very least, friends and family, so him and his family can enjoy it. But I think Nike got the buzz and they heard enough. I think we might be able to make it happen."
Booker's initial limited edition of his Nike Book 1 was released during the renowned Art Basel convention in Miami in 2023, before his shoe line was sold at retail during the NBA's Indianapolis All-Star Weekend in February 2024.
Booker's charity Starting Five partnered with legendary Los Angeles tattoo artist Mr. Cartoon on the renovated outdoor basketball court at the Chicanos Por La Causa Community Center in Phoenix in 2023. Booker did the same with local artist Joshua Castañeda at Central Park's basketball court in 2025, and Booker's spent time with Arizona-based abstract light artist, James Turrell.
In addition, Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon narrated a Book 2 shoe commercial, Booker used an MF DOOM and De La Soul song in a Nike Book 1 shoe ad, and Booker said that late hip hop and sneaker legend DJ Clark Kent inspired his "Finders Keepers" Book 1 shoe drops at random locations across the nation.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Devin Booker, New York art legend partner on Nike 'Futura' shoe
