Kyrie Irving unveiled his first signature Nike sneaker this week, and one of the first things you might have asked yourself is, "What's up with those spikes in the back?" Unlike most Nike sneakers, where every piece of the shoe is carefully constructed to serve some type of purpose, the studs on the heel counter of the Nike Kyrie 1 are simply just there because Kyrie liked them.

"The architecture on the back comes from different inspirations, like the rocky back on Christian Louboutins," he said. "It was just a lot of things that came into it."

The sneaker's lead designer, Leo Chang, said there were a few different versions of the sneaker, too: a clean one without the studs, one with just a spine, and one with even bigger spikes. There were also suede versions of the sneaker in the early stages of the design.

"In basketball culture, the shoes have to work," Leo said. "Athletes expect it to work, but they’re also like 'You’ve got to make it look fresh.' and we need to make it fit their style."

Your move, Russell Westbrook.