A’ja Wilson Honors Dawn Staley With a Nike Revival of Staley’s Iconic S5
Dawn Staley’s 1999 Signature Shoe Is Officially Getting a Nike Revival
A’ja Wilson’s next A’Two colorway is a direct tribute to her college coach, Dawn Staley — and it’s been years in the making. Wilson and Staley are both Nike athletes, with Staley even appearing in an ad for Wilson’s original A’One shoe back in 2025, but that relationship sat dormant while South Carolina remained an Under Armour school. That changed nearly a year ago when the program announced its move to Nike for 2026, sparking speculation about whether Staley’s own late-’90s signature shoe might finally resurface.
That speculation is now confirmed. On September 18, Wilson’s A’Two — the second edition of her signature line, originally launched in May — will drop in a “DS” colorway built around Staley’s 1999 Nike Air Zoom S5. The release carries a retail price of $145 under style code IX1923-100, and lands with symbolic timing: South Carolina’s first exhibition game of the season is September 27, just over a week later.
Staley’s fondness for the original S5 goes back to how it was designed. In a 2021 interview with Andscape, she explained her priorities at the time: “I didn’t really care what I looked like from my ankles up, as long as ankles down were nice, new and clean. … And I think that came off as supercool to Nike … authentic.” She was even more direct about how the shoe stood out from other signature releases at the time, saying, “I think my shoe was the flyest of them all. Some women’s shoes look like women’s shoes. I didn’t think my shoe looked like a woman’s shoe. It looked like a dude could really appreciate it and wear it. The Zoom S5 was a beautiful shoe. Nike needs to bring that thing back.”
Nike and Wilson have honored Staley before through custom pairs — all-black A’Ones and Gamecock-themed A’Twos — but this marks the first time she’s getting a shoe modeled after her own signature silhouette, connecting a piece of her playing career directly to the program she now coaches.
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