Houston guard Jalen Green had an impressive rookie season. As the highest drafted Asian-American and Filipino in the NBA, Toronto gave him a warm welcome when the Rockets dropped by the 6ix for a matchup against the Raptors before the end of regular season play. Toronto went big when Jalen came through by forming a collaboration between Adidas Canada and sneaker artist Jack the Ripper to create personalized Adidas Crazy BYWs.
The design focuses on Jalen's Filipino heritage where Jack the Ripper incorporates the colors of the Philippines flag along with the iconic 3 stars and sun symbol. Other details include the number 4, which will be Jalen's new jersey number going into next season along with the area code of 559 which represents his hometown of Fresno, California. Complex shared that Jack the Ripper also added his own flare to the design with the black trim to wrap all the colors together in a cohesive look. He channeled Jalen's play style of playful and exciting into the look of the shoe.
“After hearing about the idea of creating a shoe that celebrates Jalen’s Filipino heritage, I immediately began collecting as much information I could on the people and culture. While I learned a lot, what I struggled with was not knowing the parts of his heritage that Jalen connected with specifically...I decided that the idea should be very simplistic, and that Jalen could find his own meaning in the design...”
JACK THE RIPPER ON JALEN GREEN'S CRAZY BYW SHOE
To make the event more special, Jalen along with Adidas donated $10,000 to the Rise Tribe organization, a Toronto-based non-profit dedicated to celebrating and empowering the next generation of Filipino-Canadian youth. Jalen has been vocal about wanting to help make a path for the next generation of Fil-Am ballers and show them their dreams of making it to the League are possible.
Cover Photo: Rise Tribe Instagram
