Sabrina Ionescu starred at the University of Oregon, where she became the first NCAA basketball player to record more than 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists in a college career. The New York Liberty drafted her first overall in the 2020 WNBA Draft. Shortly afterward, she signed a multi-year endorsement deal with Nike. She chose it over offers from Under Armour and Puma, having built a relationship with Nike founder Phil Knight while at Oregon, his alma mater.

The Nike Sabrina 1 came out in 2023. It made Ionescu the eighth woman to get a Nike basketball shoe and the first women’s basketball player to release a unisex signature collection with the brand. The shoe paired full-length Nike React cushioning with a top-loaded Zoom Air unit in the forefoot, and a midfoot band system and lockdown cables kept the foot secure. Embroidery on the upper pointed to her Romanian heritage, and the slanted Swoosh stood for the obstacles she had overcome. The Sabrina 2 followed in June 2024 as the first Nike basketball shoe with Cushlon 3.0 foam, which sat inside a firmer Cushlon carrier above a forefoot Zoom Air unit. The 2025 Sabrina 3 kept that cushioning. It added an updated midfoot cable system housed in mesh pleats, a midfoot shank plate and a new traction pattern built around a concentric “S.” In 2026, the Sabrina 4 was the first Nike basketball shoe with the TPU FlyPlate, a plate system adapted from running and tuned for basketball, along with forefoot Air Zoom and a Cushlon 3.0 midsole.