In the United States, an NBA player creates his own brand of sneakers to highlight “Christian and conservative values”

Jonathan Judah Isaac has played for the Orlando Magic in Florida since 2017, opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement, his brand’s shoe models are accompanied by a Bible verse on the heel.

While more political questions than usual have been asked since the announcement of the dissolution, Sunday June 9, to the players of the French football team and Kylian Mbappé spoke of defending his values. In the United States, an NBA basketball player also chose to defend his values, in this case faith, family and freedom, by creating his own sports brand.

Basketball shoes generally have a name, most often that of the player. There, the main model is called the Judah and is available in different colors for the Exodus, The Lion of Judah, and the Unconquered. All of these models come with a Bible verse on the heel. A visible verse, apparently, is a first for a sneaker. On the Judah Triumph, we can read for example “2 Corinthians 4:9” which refers to a passage from the second epistle of the Corinthians: “persecuted but not abandoned, on the ground but not destroyed. Apart from these details, the design or the price are nothing very different from the competition The brand also sells clothing with a logo inspired by the Ark of the Covenant, the one which would contain the Ten Commandments.

The creator of the brand, an NBA player, is called Jonathan Judah Isaac, hence the name of one of the models. He’s not a star in the league. He is 26 years old and has played for the Orlando Magic in Florida since 2017. He is a very religious athlete, also a pastor. We talked a lot about him in 2020. In George Floyd’s America, before the matches, the players put one knee on the ground, in support of the African-American community, victims of police violence. Jonathan Isaac, who is black, preferred to remain standing. For him, the Black Lives Matter movement was not going to solve anything. The answer to society’s problems was rather to be found in the word of Christ. He wrote a book on the subject Why I stand.

Jonathan Judah Isaac also criticized the government’s policy on vaccination against Covid. He was thinking about having his own shoe, without selling it, and a pastor suggested he start a brand. “The basis of the brand is freedom”, he explained in the documentary Unwoke Inc. “Societies have consciously made the choice to attack or demean Christian and conservative values,” he said again. Perhaps a reference to Nike which offered a big contract to Colin Kaepernick, this American footballer hated by part of America for having knelt on the ground during the national anthem. “They have the right to do it, even if I disagree with them, and I believe that we also have the freedom to create what we want to create.”

Certain corporations, which sincerely or not, choose to highlight their progressivism have sometimes faced a call for boycott, as has happened to firms deemed too conservative. The stock price of a major beer brand has collapsed after controversy over the recruitment of a transgender influencer as spokesperson. Same thing for a supermarket chain, which put a line of rainbow clothing in stores. On the Internet, the Public Sq. platform brings together 65,000 SMEs with conservative values. Jonathan Isaac, publicly supported by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, an outspoken enemy of Wokism, is already hoping to attract families who will find themselves in what Unitus stands for. It also hopes to sign a partnership to equip high schools or universities, as other brands do.