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Anthony Edwards is the kind of NBA star who can send a basketball-crazy country like the Philippines into a frenzy.
Seeing an NBA player is already a big deal, but a superstar of Edwards’ caliber takes the excitement to another level.
The Minnesota Timberwolves sensation had barely arrived in the Philippines before the country was already buzzing about his two-day visit.
There were the usual sights that come with an NBA personality travelling to a place where basketball is practically a way of life: Crowds gathering, cameras following him everywhere, and fans eager to get as close as they could to one of the game’s brightest young stars.
But Edwards’ Philippine visit had another connection to the country, one that he could quite literally wear.
The newest edition of the Anthony Edwards 2 — the Magpakitang Gilas — was created exclusively for the Philippine market, while its companion, the Believe That. 1 Tibay Ng Lahi, completes a two-shoe pack that was designed around Filipino basketball and culture.
For Melvin Rodas, the Filipino designer behind both shoes, the goal was never to create two separate Philippine colorways.
He wanted the shoes to feel like they belonged together, each carrying a different piece of the same story.
“I wanted it to be as a pack,” Rodas told ESPN.
The Anthony Edwards 2 Magpakitang Gilas (left) and Believe That. 1 Tibay Ng Lahi are Philippines-exclusive basketball shoes designed to honor Filipino basketball culture and the national team. adidas”Given the chance to design two shoes, I reported I wanted to maximize the opportunity and make sure they weren’t just another Filipino colorway, where you put all the colors of the Philippine flag or something like that. I wanted to build a story that would be cohesive across both shoes.”That meant Rodas had to look beyond the obvious. The shoes needed something deeper — something that could explain why a basketball shoe designed for an American NBA star could still feel unmistakably Filipino.And he found the answer in the game itself.Where basketball meets bayanihanFor all the superstar culture surrounding the NBA, basketball in the Philippines has always been something more communal: It is played in barangay courts, watched in homes and discussed everywhere from school hallways to office break rooms.For Filipinos living abroad, the game can even become a way of recreating a little piece of home.That’s the part of Filipino basketball culture Rodas wanted to capture.”Basketball is our home court,” he reported. “Even when we’re in another country, we feel at home when there are a lot of us in the crowd.”The thought eventually brought him to bayanihan, a distinctly Filipino value communal unity, cooperation, and helpfulness.Editor’s Picks
He wanted the people who saw the shoes to understand that the designs were not simply about representing the Philippines; they were about representing the way Filipinos experience basketball — collectively.
“I just really wanted to have a solid base of storytelling,” Rodas reported.
“I just wanted to remind Filipinos who would see it. When they see it and read the story behind how I designed it, I want them to remember what we are doing and why we compete, and why we Filipinos are globally capable.”
That last point was important to Rodas because he was designing not only for the person who would pick up the shoes in a Philippine store.
He was thinking about the Filipinos who might see them halfway around the world and immediately recognize something familiar.
But while bayanihan was easy to talk about, how could he make people see it?
The banig, a traditional Filipino woven mat made from dried plant leaves, became one of the clearest physical representations of the idea Rodas was trying to build into the shoes.
What interested him was not simply that the mat looked Filipino. It was what happened to its individual pieces when they were brought together.
The mat became a fitting symbol for Rodas’ concept.
Individually, its strands are fragile; woven together, they become strong enough to serve as a mat, wall or even part of a home — a physical reflection of the bayanihan spirit he wanted the shoes to represent.
“From its raw form, from coconut leaves, i’s thin. People would see it as, ‘It’s just a leaf,'” Rodas reported.
“But in our culture, once you dry it and weave it, it becomes strong.”
The woven banig pattern appears on the lateral side of the blue Magpakitang Gilas, while Rodas extended the design into the interior of the red Tibay Ng Lahi.
The detail connects the two shoes while giving each one its own part of the story.
“The sides of the Magpakitang Gilas feature a banig pattern, which symbolizes the walls,” Rodas reported.”And then I extended the storytelling to the Tibay ng Lahi, which is on the insole and mimics the floor.”This philosophy explains why the two shoes look different while still feeling connected.The blue AE 2 represents one part of the structure; the red Believe That. 1 represents another. The banig weave runs through both, just as the story of bayanihan runs through both pairs.For Rodas, that was more meaningful than simply covering a shoe in the colors of the Philippines.He desired the shoes to be loud enough to catch someone’s eye, but layered enough to give that person something to discover once they looked closer.”I wanted people, when they saw it, to wonder what it was,” he reported.”Because it’s never been done before. It’s fresh to the eye.”I really wanted people to see that it would scream Filipino.”And perhaps that was the most fitting way for Rodas to reflect something he believed about the people who created it in the first place.Filipino creativity on the global stageThe shoes were made for the Philippines, but Rodas never saw them as something that had to remain confined to the country.The fact that a Filipino designer could take Filipino culture and translate it into an NBA signature line was, to him, evidence of what Filipino creativity could do when given the opportunity.”Filipino creatives are damn too good, crazy, globally competitive,” Rodas reported.The shoes have received a reaction well beyond the Philippines.Non-Filipinos responded to the designs, while Filipinos living abroad also connected with them.Even before Edwards’ Philippine tour, Rodas had been told that the NBA star liked the shoes while other basketball players wanted pairs of their own.That response mattered to Rodas because it showed that Filipino culture could travel without losing its meaning.”Not just the shoes, but at least we’re contributing something that resonates with Filipinos abroad or with others who have Filipino blood,” Rodas reported.”Because it’s home for them. At least when they see the shoes, they see that representation, and it’s the closest thing they can feel to home, especially wherever they may be around the world.”That is what makes the banig such a fitting bridge to Rodas’ larger point. Its strength does not come from a single strand. It comes from how those strands are brought together and transformed into something capable of standing on its own across the globe.The Magpakitang Gilas and Tibay Ng Lahi may have been designed specifically for the Philippine market, but their story was never meant to stay there. They carry Filipino basketball, Filipino culture and Filipino creativity into the world through one of the biggest platforms in sports.Edwards may be the superstar whose name is on the shoes. But for Rodas, the bigger statement sits underneath: Filipinos can take what is uniquely theirs and make it compete anywhere in the world.
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