“Nike You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself With Travis Scott, What the F**k Man?”: Dennis Rodman Reignites 1YO Beef

Just when you thought the discussion about Travis Scott’s Jordan Brand shoe got swept under the rug, Dennis Rodman said, ‘hold up‘. The Chicago Bulls legend was back in the Windy City to host Got Sole, a sneaker convention this month. Surrounded by limited edition kicks, The Worm was not going to let anyone forget he was a trendsetter before Travis Scott came on the scene. His mostly one-sided beef with the Astroworld mogul began when Scott dropped his new shoe line. The design, though, took everyone back to Rodman’s classic Nike design before the NDestrukt.

He sparked a controversy after his last Got Sole appearance in March 2023. So at this year’s appearance, he followed it up with, “I had this print before Travis Scott was even born.” He’s referring to the reverse Swoosh logo that featured on the Nike Air Darwin, and Scott’s shoes under the same parent brand. The fact that Nike reused it annoyed Rodman so much that he called them out too this time.

“So I don’t know why Travis Scott trying to copy the original DR – Dennis Rodman. Nike, you should be ashamed of yourself with Travis Scott. What the f**k man!” He ranted while holding one of La Flame’s shoes.

He stirred the reverse Swoosh debate last year, holding the same shoe. “Travis Scott has copied my shoe. I was the first guy to do mine backward when I was playing with the Chicago Bulls,” he said at Got Sole.

While the backward Nike logo has variations between Rodman and Scott, the 5x NBA champ isn’t wrong. And it did spark discussion about the rapper’s status as a fashion symbol.

Tracing the backward Swoosh from Dennis Rodman to Travis Scott

Dennis Rodman’s signature shoe was the NDestrukt but it was preceded by the Nike Air Darwin in 1994. The design was as flamboyant as The Worm’s persona. Back then, Nike had already played with its recognizable logo in multiple ways. But inverting it at the ankle blew some minds in the ’90s.

The underrated Air Darwin was not so much a basketball shoe but designed for the outdoors. It slipped under the radar, especially when Andre Agassi’s Air Flare dropped that same year with the reverse Swoosh. The Nike Air Ndestrukt was released in 1995, also with a smaller version of the backward logo at the upper heel, and became popular for outdoor basketball.

Other honorary mentions in the reverse Swoosh catalog include the LeBron X in 2012, the 2015 Air Max, the 2018 PG 2, the Kobe AD Nxt in 2017, and a few in between. The Travis Scott x Air Jordan 1 dropped in 2019 and became a hot seller. But contrary to what his fans think, he didn’t originate the idea. Perhaps what pricks Rodman is the success of Scott’s shoe. Or he’d have picked a bone with Bron and PG too.

Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting pilot episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and SEC All-Freshman Team Selection, Silas Demary Jr.