Jayson Tatum didn’t get a lot of time to spend playing in his fourth signature sneaker.
Coming back after tearing his achilles during the 2025 playoffs and launching the Jordan Tatum 4 that fall without a clear return date sight, the Boston Celtics superstar appeared in just 23 NBA games last season. More than 25 percent of those came in the playoffs as the Philadelphia 76ers took game 7 in their first-round matchup against a team that captured a championship just two years ago.
If all goes to plan this season, Tatum will be playing in his next shoe for all 82 games of the regular season and a much longer postseason run.
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The Jordan Tatum 5 will arrive this fall with a series of lines at the base of the right heel calling out where the nine-year veteran injured himself while trying to defend the Celtics’ 2024 title. Kobe Bryant had a similar detail on the Nike Kobe 9 as a nod to his own recovery from an achilles injury, but the connection is merely a coincidence despite the late legend famously being a mentor to Tatum.
“What I’ve had to learn and accept from that experience is that anytime you go through something traumatic, you’re not going to be the same,” Tatum told a select group of journalists during a preview of his shoe in July. “I literally don’t look the same. I have a scar on the back of my heel. It’s a part of my journey. [Don’t] let that moment define you, but everything you do after that, let that story be told.”
Tatum extended the connection beyond the token for his scar by pointing out that the entire sneaker looks different than its predecessors, starting with a strap that’s a first in the entire line. Beyond what can be seen externally, which was intentionally kept to a minimum, the piece extends underneath the laces to enable greater lockdown.
“We know there’s been straps in the past that aren’t overly functional,” said Tony Hardman, design director of Jordan Basketball. “So we wanted to make sure we weren’t going down that road where we were just kind of, you know, bolting something extra onto the shoe.”
Control remains a focus through a molded rubber midfoot wrap extending from the sole unit to the upper and a heel clip shaped like Tatum’s number 0 and The Gateway Arch in his hometown of St. Louis.
Rounding out the sole unit is a 10mm forefoot Air Zoom unit and a Hart 2.0 rubber outsole with a herringbone traction pattern.
A black Sunset colorway with pink and orange targeted at the midfoot band will usher in the shoe’s launch, and a purple Sunset counterpart with pink and peach at midfoot will come later along with another edition that appears like camo from a far but actually features printed graphics that include the 2024 championship banner, the chapel at Tatum’s alma matter Duke and more personal iconography.
The Jordan Tatum 5 will release Sept. 24 in China with a global launch to follow. Pricing is set at $150.
