If there is a Michael Jordan of coffee sneakers it is Ian Williams. The owner of Portland’s Deadstock Coffee has been on the cutting edge (brewing edge?) of coffee sneakers for closing in on a decade now, but the GOAT doesn’t stay the GOAT on past achievements; what have you done for me lately? And Williams has teamed with the Jordan brand for a coffee-themed Jordan Tatum 2 PE.
It’s a bit of coming full circle for Williams. The Jordan brand falls under the Nike umbrella, the company Williams began working as a janitor at before becoming a shoe designer. Now, he’s creating a colorway for one of its premier brands. As reported by Sneaker News, the new Jordan Tatum—the sneaker for Boston Celtics star Jason Tatum—will have a coffee-themed “mocha” colorway.
The white leather and mesh shoe features brown leather accents—including “elephant print” leather on the toe and heel, somewhat reminiscent of snakeskin print on the late great Kobe Bryant’s own Mamba sneaker with Nike—as well as more brown in the sole and shoe’s interior. Jason Tatum’s logo as well as Deadstock’s coffee-beans-in-fire emblem both appear on the tongue of the sneaker and the shoe’s insole. A “4th and Couch” tag is stitched inside the tongue, a nod to the Norwest Portland corner where Deadstock’s cafe sits.
Per Sneaker News, no release date has been announced for Deadstock’s coffee-themed Jordan Tatum 2 PE. Tatum is about to be busy leading the heavily-favored Celtics in the NBA playoffs, where, if the current rankings hold (play-in game nonsense included), he would be going head-to-head with the Miami Heat, led by Big Face Coffee owner Jimmy Butler. Wouldn’t be a terrible time to bust out your own pair of coffee sneakers, no?
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.