What are you gonna do, brother, when Trumpamania runs wild on you? That’s the question Hulk Hogan posed to the crowd at the Republican National Convention last Thursday as he ripped off his shirt to reveal a Trump-Vance shirt underneath, confirming his endorsement of the former president in this year’s election. If Hogan was all business up front, then the true party was in the back. Or rather, what was hiding behind the podium: the sneakers on his feet.
Hogan laced up a pair of red Nike hightops, the Air Max Audacity from 2016, for the event. The shoe, a takedown basketball sneaker from that retailed for $100, is the sort of model you’d see on the shelves of a Dick’s Sporting Goods or Modell’s. They’re made in generic TB or “team bank” colorways: basic blue/white, green/white/, red/white, etc. to match uniforms of high school teams.
The shoes themselves aren’t impressive—it’s more shocking that Hogan even found something to fit his feet at all. He’s a size 17. More than a decade ago, before his cultural canceling when a video was leaked by Gawker of him saying the N-word, Hogan was an unlikely darling of sneaker blogs.
In a tweet from Jan. 21, 2014, Hogan exclaimed, “Just got the Crimson Jordan 3's and the Bel Air Jordan 5's! Hard to get in size 17 BROTHER! “ He went on to thank Reggie Saunders, who runs entertainment marketing at Jordan Brand. “Jordan4Life,” Hogan wrote.
During that era, blogs would post everything that Hogan wore. It was pageview heaven. There’s a photo with Hogan laid back on a couch, flexing his muscles, with an Air Jordan 11 Low on one foot and a Jordan 4 on the other. In front of him, he has eight different pairs of Jordans. There’s also a photo of him wearing the “He Got Game” Air Jordan 13s while he has “Grape” 5s, “Playoff” 8s, and “Fire Red” 5s next to him as well.
Hogan would regularly post photos of new Jordans on top of his 24-inch pythons (the nickname for his biceps, for the uninitiated). The Air Jordan 3 “Crimson” would become his signature shoe.
Hogan’s sneaker obsession seemed random at the time, but his son, Nick, was seriously into sneakers back then. He had grails like the Nike Air Yeezys, “Heineken” and “Shanghai” Dunks, and more. When Hulk posted his first sneaker photo, Nick said, “The bug has officially bit!”
Nick shot into the public eye during the early 2000s with the reality show Hogan Knows Best, which followed the family around. This was before a serious car accident, with Nick behind the wheel, in 2007 that left his close friend John Graziano with permanent, severe brain damage.
The elder Hogan was never known as a big sneakerhead in his wrestling days. His standard footwear was big yellow and red wrestling boots. But over the years he’s dabbled in shoes like Nike Shox, New Balance 574s, Puma Speedcats, and recently wore a pair of Jordan 4s to make an appearance on Joe Rogan.
Politics aside, the clip of Hogan ripping his shirt at the RNC dominated social media for the weekend. Some said seeing Hulk in the spotlight made them feel like they were kids again, others felt America was now a joke. We’ll leave you to formulate your own opinions. But it wasn’t the only Trump-related sneaker moment in recent history.
In February 2024, Donald Trump appeared at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia to give a surprise campaign rally speech that divided the sneaker community. Influencers showed up for a photo-op with Trump; many commenters said that sneakers and politics shouldn’t be mixed. Trump even released a $399 gold high-top sneaker at the event, the “Never Surrender High Tops.” One man, Roman Sharf, paid $9,000 for them.
The infamous Trump shoes made an appearance during Saturday Night Live’s February episode with Shane Gillis, in which he plays basketball as Trump, against Adam Ray as Joe Biden.
This sneaker talk around Trump led a Joe Biden campaign official to give a rebuttal statement.
“Donald Trump showing up to hawk bootleg off-whites is the closest he’ll get to any Air Force Ones ever again for the rest of his life,” the Biden camp said.
There was also another pair of Trump sneakers unveiled last week that has his picture after the assassination attempt on his life with the words, “Fight, fight, fight.” Those sneakers were divisive as well, but not as much as the first ones.
Hulk wearing the Air Max Audacity at the RNC was just a random sneaker moment. Something he would wear out in Florida or to a political rally. But it’s not political pandering via sneaker culture in the ways that Trump or Biden’s appeals to sneaker people were.
Hogan’s shoes weren’t seen on camera, and it’s almost for the better. Not because he did anything wrong by wearing them, but because we don’t need footwear to further become a tool for political messaging this year. Hogan would just want you to chew your vitamins, say your prayers, and wear your sneakers.