Meet B-Girl Sunny Choi & the First-Ever Nike Breakdancing Shoe She Will Wear at the Olympics
Sunny Choi, 35, is the first woman to qualify for the American breaking team at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She will make history, along with her teammates, when breaking makes its Olympic debut in Paris next month.
Choi, a Nike athlete, is the top-ranked B-girl in America. She won silver at the 2022 World Games and she won the Pan American Games women’s breaking competition in November 2023.
The dancer started breaking during her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania where she joined the school club, and for more than 10 years, she has been dancing in Queens, New York. She has since traveled and battled around the world.
At the Olympics, she will be wearing Nike — specifically the headline-making, first-of-its-kind breaking shoe: The Nike Jam.
The sneaker is six years in the making and is built on extensive testing at the Nike Sport Research Lab. The brand gathered insights from breakers at all levels of the sport, including Choi.
The Jam design is meant to maximizes breakers’ ability to slide across smooth competition surfaces as well as concrete and asphalt. Its foam drop-in midsole construction provides breakers ample protective cushioning, and its rubber cupsole offers the close-to-ground feel breakers need to perform at their peak.
As for its look, designers landed on retro aesthetic inspired by breaking roots. The Jam’s black and gum colorway, for instance, draws on the turntable and microphone equipment hip-hop DJs and MCs use to set the vibe, and its tan and black colorway nods to the cardboard breakers used to protect themselves from unpredictable surfaces. A third white and black colorway, created in partnership with Futura, recasts his iconic 1980 Break Train piece in an exclusive, reimagined design.
The Nike Jam and breaking apparel collection is available now at nike.com and select retail stores. The USA, Korea and Japan federation kits, meanwhile, will be available globally Aug 1 at nike.com The Nike Jam Futura colorway releases in Fall 2024.
Breaking originated in the Bronx in the 1970s. At the Olympics, 16 men and 16 women will compete via round robin followed by quarterfinals, semifinals and medal battles. Each battle features a best-of-three one-on-one contest of approximately one minute. When one breaker finishes their round, their opponent instantly begins their routine in a battle format. A panel of nine judges will then score the b-boys and b-girls on creativity, personality, technique, variety, performativity and musicality.