While many past and present NBA players are under contract with a major athletic footwear and sports apparel conglomerate, Jonathan Isaac wears his own brand when he steps on the basketball court.
The Orlando Magic forward founded UNITUS, a faith-forward apparel brand. According to the company’s official website, the brand goes beyond producing premium Christian clothing and footwear, it is “a global movement for positive change.”
“We believe Jesus offers our world a better way, and we boldly stand for our faith in Him. Our mission is to inspire and empower people to live in greater unity, freedom, strength, and purpose.”
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“From its inception it’s just been a vision of connecting people to Christ and each other… for it to be a real touchpoint for believers. To have something we are confident in (and) feel great about.”
Isaac cautioned that the company always tries to avoid forcing its values and beliefs on others.
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“We are not pushing that onto other people, it’s more of an internal thing,” he told Fox News Digital. “A big part about us is… you’re wearing the Scripture on your shoes, on your clothes for you, to remind you of the bigger picture. And then to take that out (into) the world. Being able to take the word of God with me on the court when I’m wearing my basketball sneakers, it’s the same thing… it’s for me internally and at the same time, I get to use it as a witness in front of everybody else. It’s just a medium to do that.”
Isaac admitted he ended up being “forced” into launching his own sneaker line.
“I was signed to Nike back in 2020 and unfortunately, I got injured… I tore my ACL,” Isaac told Fox News Digital. “Nike had made the decision not to resign me. While I’m going through my rehab process… I actually went and spoke to my pastor… and he told me ‘Why don’t you just make your own sneaker?'”
Isaac’s pastor then challenged him to be at the forefront for active NBA players in the independent sneaker line space. The 27-year-old said creating his own brand gave him creative autonomy.
“With that freedom to make my own sneaker I could make it completely unique to myself. (I wanted to make) a shoe that demonstrates faith, demonstrates what’s important to me. My middle name is Judah so we (call it) the Judah 1. And every shoe has a visible Bible verse on the outside, and that’s how it started. And it went from that… to an entire brand set around that same sentiment of being able to take the word of God with you everywhere you go.”
Isaac has not shied away from speaking out about his beliefs. However, doing so can often result in backlash. Isaac said he does his best to filter out the negativity.
“The biggest thing for me is spending as little time as I can on social media, especially on X. It gets crazy over there. But, it’s tough (because) sports and a couple of other professions, nobody else in their regular life has as much feedback as we do because we’re playing live, and now you’ve got the parlays and now you’ve got all that other stuff going on.
“Once you play, you’ve got 50 (direct messages) of people saying ‘Oh you messed up this’ or ‘You did great’ or ‘You didn’t do great.’ It’s tough to deal with just as a regular human being. People forget that, people forget you’re human, people forget you’ve got issues (and) you got through stuff just like everybody else.”
Isaac appeared in 71 games in the 2024-25 NBA season.
Beginning in early June, customers will be able to purchase UNITUS’ new activewear line.
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