Nike | Kids Basketball Color Design Concept A concept-driven kids basketball color study inspired by community courts.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Developed a concept color design project for a kids basketball sneaker, using restored and artistically painted community basketball courts as the core source of inspiration. The project explored how color can tell a story, create emotional connection, and bring energy, playfulness, and personality to a product designed for young athletes.

THE CHALLENGE

Create a compelling color direction for a kids basketball shoe that felt fresh, spirited, and emotionally engaging.

The challenge was not just to make the shoe colorful, but to develop a concept with depth — something rooted in a clear point of view, supported by research, and translated into colorways that felt intentional, wearable, and distinctive.

MY APPROACH

I started by researching renovated and donor-supported basketball courts across the U.S., especially courts that had been transformed through bold graphics, vibrant palettes, and strong community presence.

What stood out to me was the way these spaces represented more than sport. They reflected joy, access, creativity, neighborhood pride, and the power of design to energize everyday environments.

Using that as the foundation, I built a concept around playful, expressive color storytelling for kids. I pulled visual references that reinforced that feeling — spirited graphics, youthful energy, movement, and bold color interactions — and used those references to shape the overall mood and direction of the project.

THE EXECUTION

From that research, I developed multiple colorways for the sneaker, each with its own name, narrative, and emotional point of view.

I created moodboards, identified supporting inspiration imagery, selected and refined the palettes, named the individual colors, and applied the concepts across the shoe silhouette in a way that felt balanced and intentional.

Each option was designed to communicate a specific mood while still functioning as a cohesive product concept. I also wrote descriptive copy for each colorway to help articulate the story, energy, and personality behind the design.

This process required more than selecting appealing colors. It involved concept development, visual research, color sensitivity, storytelling, and the ability to translate inspiration into a product that feels both imaginative and commercially relevant.

THE OUTCOME

A concept-driven kids basketball color design project that combined cultural research, community-inspired storytelling, and visual product development.

This work reflects my ability to build a design concept from the ground up — from identifying a meaningful source of inspiration, to shaping the emotional direction, to executing colorways that feel thoughtful, expressive, and marketable.

It also demonstrates how I approach color design as more than decoration. For me, color is a tool for storytelling, connection, and creating products that resonate on both an emotional and visual level.