The University of Texas football team has always worn shoes that are white, black, burnt orange, and sometimes even gold. Despite rarely diverging from tradition, the Longhorns will soon be able to add copper to that list of colors. For the 2019 Alamo Bowl against the Utah Utes, UT will wear special edition copper cleats that feature the branding of one of the school’s most famous athletes: Kevin Durant.

RAW: KD Alamo Bowl cleat reveal. Paying homage to the KD 4 Christmas shoe worn by Kevin Durant on Christmas Day against the Orlando Magic in 2011.#ThisIsTexas #HookEm @KDTrey5 pic.twitter.com/3DKH84gU14 — Texas Football (@TexasFootball) December 17, 2019

These special cleats pay homage to the Nike Zoom KD IV Christmas worn by Kevin Durant on Christmas Day 2011. As Durant’s kicks originally drew inspiration from copper Christmas cookie cutters, each pair of cleats sports an eye-catching copper colored upper with black accents throughout. The KD logo is featured on the heel of each cleat, which marks the first time that KD branded footwear has been worn by Texas on the gridiron.

The bronze and black color scheme is all right in my book. I’m not blown away by it, but I do appreciate the story as well as the tie in to the Christmas KD IVs. While I’m a firm believer that Texas Football should never wear alternate uniforms, changing up the cleats every now and then is perfectly fine. It gives the players and certain sects of the fan base something different to look forward to, while still keeping uniform purists happy. Say what you want about Tom Herman’s coaching ability, but at least in terms of UT’s uniforms the man has done a great job of walking the line between staying traditional while still being modern.

Most importantly, I’m excited to see that the Longhorns will finally be wearing KD branded cleats. This is a move that has always felt like a no-brainier, especially when schools like Ohio State often wear at least one type of LeBron related cleat each season. While in reality these are merely UT’s regular assortment of cleats in copper with a KD logo slapped on the back, its a massive step in the right direction for the partnership between Nike, Kevin Durant, and the University of Texas. Given that the powers that be finally made this happen, I have high hopes that next season we will see the Longhorns take the field in a cleated version of what will then be Durant’s latest signature shoe, the KD13.

Look for the Longhorns to wear these when they take the field against Utah on December 31st in the 2019 Alamo Bowl. What do you think about these KD inspired cleats? Would you like to see more UT X KD cleats in the future, or should Tom Herman stop messing around with the uniforms and focus on winning football games?

Images via @TexasFootball, @TexasFootball (Instagram), and @mattjlange