Epic Games and People Can Fly's building and battle royale game Fortnite has some incredibly famous fans, with Grammy-award winning musician Chance the Rapper calling for the game to be released on the Nintendo Switch. But Chance isn't the only one with a soft spot for Fortnite according to some very eye-catching footwear sported recently by one professional athlete.
Josh Hart, a guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, was spotted wearing a pair of Fortnite Battle Royale-themed kicks ahead of a Lakers game that took place over the weekend. During the warmup ahead of the February 24 Lakers match against the Sacramento Kings, Hart was photographed in the green and purple colored sneakers. The main section of the sneakers is purple and features the Lakers guard reimagined as a scythe-wielding Fortnite character on them, along with his name, J. Hart. On the other side of the shoe, Josh Hart's Fortnite character can be seen holding onto his glider written next to "Eliminated by JoshHartNova," with JoshHartNova being Josh Hart's Xbox Live Gamertag.
These sneakers are a custom pair of Nike Kobe shoes, designed by Salvador "Kickstrodamis" Amezcua, a Los Angeles-based artist who specializes in custom sneaker design. It's worth noting that Amezcua is offering to make another custom pair for Fortnite players and is currently hosting a competition on Twitter here and it runs until February 28, so fans have some time left to enter it.
In a video, Amezcua notes that Fortnite is Josh Hart's favorite game. In fact, the Lakers player loves the game so much that he even hosts regular Twitch streams showing off his skills. As 'JHartShow' he has 2,136 followers on the live-streaming platform. According to fans who have tuned into his streams, Josh Hart isn't quite at the levels of record-setting Fortnite players like Ninja just yet, but the professional NBA player can certainly hold his own.
Epic Games and People Can Fly will surely be delighted to have such a high profile fan of their game. Although Fortnite Battle Royale was developed secondary to Fortnite Save The World, the free to play battle royale mode has since racked up millions of players. If professional athletes like Josh Hart continue to sing praises about the game (and keep promoting it via customer footwear) who knows how popular the game can become.
Fortnite is currently available in early access for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Header image credit: Lakers - Twitter