Over six months ago, Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum launched his second signature sneaker with Jordan Brand — before the 26-year-old became an NBA champion, signed a record-large extension and was chosen as the cover athlete for “NBA 2K25.”
Now, as Tatum and the Celtics approach a new slate, this time as title-defenders, the five-time All-Star released his third model with Jordan Brand, the Tatum 3. The first colorway, paying homage to TD Garden and Boston’s 18th championship, came out in two variations: a general release pair and a limited edition two-sneaker pack raffled off by Concepts, a Boston-based sneaker retailer, located on Newbury Street.
The “Welcome to the Garden” edition, in both its two forms, marks the start of plenty more to come from Tatum and his third signature release with Jordan Brand.
“For me, the Tatum 3 represents the evolution of where I’m at in my career and I’m learning from the previous year on things that I wanna change and get better at and keep evolving and adapting to what’s new in the world,” Tatum told Bleacher Report. “‘Welcome to the Garden,’ the first one that’s coming out with the floral pattern, meant to represent the Garden, where my fans, my family come to all the games. So this is a nod to them.”
Tatum’s previous two signature sneakers featured a plethora of attention-to-detail editions inspired by the nearest and dearest pieces of his life.
Tatum mentioned how one of the first colorways of the first Tatum 3 rollout took inspiration from his son, Duece, and was named “Sidewalk Chalk.” Of course, those closest to Tatum, including the folks over at Concepts, expected nothing less from the champ, father and two-time Olympic gold medalist turning the page and moving on to his eighth season in the league.
“(Jordan Brand and Tatum) pitched it to us eight or nine months back so this was in preparation before they actually won the title,” Deon Point, the creative director at Concepts, told NESN.com at the celebratory launch party at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. “We were stoked on it because we were trying to do something with him for a long time but in fairness, I gotta add this was all through Jordan Brand. So they did it, we just helped facilitate them. It was a very quick turnaround for them. And for them to do the double pack and kind of innovate the box in a way they’ve never done before, it was down to the wire but they came out great. I couldn’t be happier.”
Tatum underwent a rigorous, busy and pressure-filled journey to help lead the Celtics to capture Banner 18. There was the design and production process in bringing the Tatum 3 to life, the filming of Netflix’s ‘Starting 5’ docuseries and the obvious workload of an 82-game regular season plus the 19 playoff battles it took for Boston to get the job done.
“What a lot of people don’t know about the process is it’s like a 18-month process,” Tatum explained, per Bleacher Report. “So I was wearing the 1’s, the 2’s were about to come and then we were working on the 3’s. That’s why I say each shoe holds a different place in my heart. I have a tattoo of the Tatum 1 on my back. It’s like a first bicycle, your first child, your first anything. You’ll never forget that. But I accomplished the most special and important thing in my career (winning a title) in the Tatum 2’s. So the 2’s was like, I will always love and hold dearly to my heart. But then when I saw the 3’s, the sketch of them, I was like, ‘Man, I wanna fast forward time. I can’t wait ’till those come out.’”
Tatum added: “Nothing is perfect but I feel like the 3’s is as close as you can get.”
So far, Tatum’s revealed four colorways of the Tatum 3, building up the anticipation with less than two weeks before Opening Night. But don’t expect those four to be the only ones offered by Jordan Brand. The one-of-a-kind “Welcome to the Garden” pack might’ve been nearly impossible to attain, however, Tatum’s work with the brand — much like his work on the court — is far from finished.