Chris Kaman was an unusual NBA player. The former Los Angeles Clipper had a propensity for strange flexes…falling asleep during a matchposing with a dead cat before a Charlotte Bobcats game, making up a viral story about Black Griffin punching Justin Bieber, but was also an All-Star, tearing up the roster in 2010. A true enigma, much like the new wacky but- slightly fiery basketball clogs from streetwear startup Scary Kittles, nicknamed “the Kaman” in his honor, which just released today.
“He came into the league as a seven-foot, goofy-looking white guy with long blond hair who had an oddly ambidextrous game and a really unorthodox style,” says Evan More, co-founder of LA-via. -NYC brand. “It seemed like a perfect match, kind of like what we wanted to achieve with these shoes.”
Stefan Kohli
Featuring an orange leather upper with raised black lines mimicking the grooves of a basketball, these funky shoes were designed by Scary Kittles co-founder Jack Herzog, whose day job is lead designer at KidSuper, Brooklyn’s booming brand. The slip-ons turned heads when the brand teased them on X in February, and they’re bound to make even more noise on social media now that they’ve officially landed.
Herzog kept the sketch of the clogs in his back pocket for a minute. “I’ve literally been showing people the design for years,” says the 30-year-old. “Every time, I always got a very solid reaction, even from non-basketball fans. It just makes sense. It’s one of those ideas where I’m like, “I can’t believe this doesn’t exist yet.” »
It took a lot of R&D to perfect the Kaman. The guys tried experimenting with Horween leather, the official material used for NBA basketballs, but it didn’t quite meet their aesthetic standards. Instead, they opted for real leather, over a contoured cork footbed. But Lebowski’s highlight is the green suede insole. “It kind of ties the whole design together,” Herzog says, adding that he wanted it to look like “playground green basketball courts.”
