WNBA standouts Kahleah Copper and Natasha Cloud use their shoes to share powerful messages

Cloud and Copper also paid homage to their Philly roots via Valley Threads, a curated player collection by the Mercury and NBA’s Phoenix Suns.

Philly's Natasha Cloud (left) and Kahleah Copper (right) of the Phoenix Mercury defend Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark during an Aug. 16 matchup.Read moreDarron Cummings / AP

by Devin Jackson

Published Sept. 16, 2024, 5:00 a.m. ET

Natasha Cloud has been an outspoken activist for most of her WNBA career. The Broomall native and Phoenix Mercury guard opted out of the 2020 season to focus on her long-running social justice work and remains active in working with grassroots organizations like Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety.

In 2020, through a collaboration with Ruff Customs, the Mercury began a “My Kicks, My Cause” initiative, which allows players to showcase their support for a cause or organization. Messages like Black Lives Matter and cancer awareness have been displayed on custom shoes.

For Cloud, the choice was easy. Everytown, a gun-violence awareness nonprofit, inspired the custom Kobe shoes Cloud wore during a June 7 matchup with the Minnesota Lynx, which also was National Gun Awareness Day.

With the base color orange (a color used by Everytown to honor lives lost to gun violence) with white laces, the shoes are covered in messages: “PROTECT KIDS NOT GUNS” is written along the front of her right shoe, “end gun violence” on the back of the right shoe, “TEACH PEACE” intertwined on the front of the left shoe, “wear orange” on the back of her left shoe, and a firearm crossed out on the outsides of the shoes.

“There is no reason that kids are scared to go to school. There’s no reason that we want to equip teachers with guns. There is no reason that we want our kids going into an environment that almost resembles jail with metal detectors and police presence,” Cloud told The Inquirer. “[Kids] don’t get to just go to school and get an education, and that’s not a priority for us in this country.”

She added: “So for My Kicks, My Cause, I wore orange shoes, the messaging on my shoes was to ‘protect kids and not guns.’ And my message is still very true. … It’s a heavy topic. It’s a topic that I care deeply about, especially because I have nieces and nephews of my own that are scared to go to school, and that’s absolutely insane.”

Her teammate and fellow Philadelphian, Kahleah Copper, elected to highlight breast cancer awareness with her shoes, a pair of the Adidas Exhibit Selects. The base color was pink, representing the main color associated with breast cancer awareness, a disease that affected three women in her family: her great-grandmother, Bytia, who died in 2018; her mother, Leticia, who survived cancer in 2015; and her grandmother, Milly.

The shoe has different shades of pink outlining a ribbon, a symbol associated with cancer, with their names written on both shoes.

Copper, who wore the pair for a matchup against the Lynx on Aug. 28, has become an active advocate for breast cancer awareness, using her platform to encourage people to know their family history and ask their doctors for genetic cancer screenings as well as mammograms.

“I chose this because it directly affected my family, my immediate family,” Copper said in a video released by the Mercury on social media. “It’s important to spread the awareness, whether it’s earlier testing or just being aware. I have the platform to spread the awareness for people who are normal people, but who are going through the same thing. So if I’m able to use my platform to help another woman, that’s what I want to do.”

Pushing forward WNBA’s culture

Cloud grew up idolizing the cultural impacts Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant had on the NBA and is now making her own mark on the culture of the Mercury and the WNBA.

In 2020, Cloud became the first woman to sign with Converse Hoops after winning the 2019 WNBA title with the Washington Mystics. In 2021, she launched a pair of her own player edition of the Converse All-Star Pro BB Evo Low, called “Pedal to the Metal.” But after three years with Converse, whose parent company is Nike, the former St. Joseph’s standout signed on as a Nike athlete earlier this year.

“I feel like as a generation that truly grew up with like wanting to be like Mike into the Nike family, Converse, Jordan, all that intertwined, [what] you dream of is being with that company,” Cloud said. “Nike is all I’ve ever worn my entire life, both shoes, clothes, hoodies, joggers, like across the board.

“So to be able to sign with a brand like that — being an underdog, being a mid-major kid that never expected to make it to the WNBA, let alone win a championship, let alone lead not only one organization in all-time assists, but I’m trying to work for that for that second one now here in Phoenix — just accomplishments that I’ve been able to to see within my career as a kid that was never expected to make it here and then to sign with a brand like Nike, that’s a childhood dream of mine.”

Copper, an Adidas athlete, released a second player edition of the Exhibit Select 2.0, named “Just a Kid from Norf Philly” in July to honor her journey in the WNBA while paying homage to her North Philly roots. The 2021 WNBA Finals MVP and Olympic gold medalist this summer signed with the brand in 2021 and released her first player edition shoe in 2023 as a member of the Chicago Sky.

Over the past month, the Philly pair have had branded merchandise created through Valley Threads, a curated collection of apparel designed by the players on both of Phoenix’s professional basketball teams, the Suns and Mercury.

Cloud’s collection, which dropped exclusively in the Mercury team store on Aug. 26, has a hat, with her No. 0 in the center outlined by a cloud, a nod to her family name, and parents’ initials on the side. The T-shirt, with one of her personal mottos “Real Not Proper” written on the shirt, has several Easter eggs, from the Liberty Bell to flower petals honoring her siblings, nieces, and nephews.

“It was a really cool process for me to be able to sit down and talk through what makes me be me, what I care about, who I truly am,” Cloud said. “I’m the youngest of five siblings, so I got to incorporate them. I got to incorporate my two young nieces that were just born with both of their names being flower petals, Hazel Rose and Daisy; bringing in my parents ... really just bringing my Philly roots into it, too.

“I really believe that the environment that raised me is the reason I am standing where my feet are today, without my rock, without my why and my family, I wouldn’t be who I am.”

Copper, who starred at Prep Charter and Rutgers, has a black T-shirt in her collection that has a compass on the front of the shirt to signify her roots, with the phrase “Just a kid from North Philadelphia” written across the neckline, which also appears on the inside of her signature shoe. On the back, there’s a No. 2, her number with the Mercury, with a map of Philly inside the number, and “tough — resilient — competitive” on the bottom, traits that she embodies on the court.

“It was special because I got to play around with, like, some fashion that I like, but also something very specific to me,” Copper, whose Norf Philly collection released Friday, said in the promo video. “For me to come here and be able to play in front of these fans during games, you see people walking around with your jersey. But to see them in this shirt that I specifically designed, I think it’s just going to be a cool experience.”

For the first time since 2022, the Mercury return to the WNBA playoffs, which begin Sunday. Cloud, who leads the team in assists per game (6.9) and Copper, the team’s leading scorer (21.6), have played a large role in their team’s success. They currently hold the No. 7 seed and are slated to face the No. 2 seeded Lynx.