If you've watched a Thunder game this season, you've already seen this shoe. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander first showed the "Flare" colorway of his SHAI 001 Lace Up at NBA Media Day with a Nike logo on the back, and he's been wearing it in games ever since. Now the retail pair is set to drop on October 29 for $120.
The retail version keeps the Converse star and chevron on the heel like the earlier colorways. Beyond that, it's orange. Flare orange covers almost the whole shoe, from the wavy sculpted upper down to the outsole, and only the cream laces and inner lining break it up. A shoe this orange should come with a free Thunder ticket stub, and honestly it might as well, because it's about as OKC as a sneaker gets without printing the zip code on the tongue.
Our take: tonal colorways are a gamble, but this one works because the SHAI 001's layered shape gives the single color plenty of shadows and edges to play with. It also lands at an interesting moment. Sneaker News reports that a Nike-branded SHAI 002 is expected sometime this season, which makes every Converse SHAI 001 from here a little more of a collector's piece. At $120 it's also one of the friendlier signature-shoe prices out there.
Release info
- Product: Converse SHAI 001 Lace Up "Flare"
- Style code: A23933C
- Price: $120
- Release: October 29, 2026, via Nike SNKRS and select retailers
For more from the Chuck Taylor crew, check out Converse at ONENESS.
Official images and report via Sneaker News.
