The $70 adidas AE Mule Is Coming, and adidas Still Has Not Named It

The adidas AE Mule arrives this fall in Bliss Blue at $70, an open-backed slip-on built off the visual language of Anthony Edwards’ basketball line. That is the short version, and it is close to everything anyone can actually confirm about it. adidas has published nothing on this shoe. No newsroom post, no press release, no product page. The two outlets covering it cannot agree on what it is called or when it lands, which is a strange position for a signature-athlete product from a brand that announces almost everything.

Edwards is the reason a $70 slip-on gets written about at all. Minnesota took him first overall in the 2020 draft, and adidas signed him that December, two games into his rookie season, with Shams Charania reporting the deal. An earlier version of this post said he signed in 2022. That is wrong by roughly two years, and the timing is the interesting part, because adidas committed to him before he had played a full month of NBA basketball. It paid off. He is a four-time All-Star, a two-time All-NBA Second Team selection, the 2025-26 All-Star Game MVP, and he carries a career average of 24.6 points with a high of 55 in a single game. adidas extended him in July 2024 in a deal reported at eight figures a year, which effectively made him the face of the brand’s basketball division.

The signature line has moved fast. The AE 1 launched in December 2023 at $120, the AE 2 followed in October 2025 at $130, and the AE 3 is already in market with colorways scheduled into late 2026 at the same $130. Both of those got their own posts on the adidas newsroom, with the basketball division general manager quoted on each. The mule has no equivalent, which is what makes the silence around it worth noting rather than shrugging at. The mule sits underneath all of it at $70, borrowing the AE 3’s design cues, the tooth-shaped cutouts down the sidewall and the AE mark on the tongue, and dropping the performance requirements. An earlier version of this post called it recovery footwear. Nothing from adidas supports that. Recovery shoes are a defined category with specific foam and geometry claims behind them, and with no brand copy to point at, the honest description is an open-back mule that looks like the basketball shoe, not a recovery product. Style code KZ9165 is confirmed by both outlets covering it. A second colorway, Stone and Lucid Blue, carries KZ9166 and follows about a week later.

The genuinely notable thing here is what is missing from everybody else’s shelf. Nike sells the Calm Mule at $65 and New Balance sells a 9060 Mule, but both are lifestyle products with no athlete attached. PUMA’s basketball line has no mule at all. Across the current signature ranks, the AE Mule appears to be the only open-back shoe tied to an active player’s numbered line, which reads less like a throwaway and more like adidas testing whether a signature athlete can carry a product category the way a brand logo does. At $70 the risk is small and the shelf space is cheap. If it works, the AE line has a permanent low-price entry point that nobody else in basketball currently offers.

On price, $70 puts the mule at roughly half of the AE 3 and under Nike’s comparable Calm Mule by five dollars. That is aggressive for a signature product, and it is the clearest signal of what adidas wants from it. This is not a margin play. It is an audience play, aimed at the buyer who wants something with Edwards’ name on it and cannot or will not spend $130.

The release date is not settled and this post is not going to pick one. JustFreshKicks reports October 1. Sneaker Bar Detroit reports September with no specific day. adidas has confirmed neither, so treat the fall window as reported rather than official. Price is $70, style code is KZ9165, colorway is Bliss Blue, and it releases through adidas and its basketball accounts. The product name is unsettled too, running as the AE Mule at one outlet and the Anthony Edwards 3 Mule at the other. More is in our AE hub and the adidas archive.

Source: Justfreshkicks

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The Sneakers Team

The Sneakers Team is the editorial desk behind becausesneakers, founded and edited by Nick Engvall. Nick has spent more than two decades in the sneaker industry. He built the original Eastbay Blog, led the first dedicated sneaker team at Complex, ran the first UGC and seeding programs at Finish Line, was employee number nine at StockX, and served as Senior Director at Stadium Goods. He hosts the Sneaker History podcast, and his first book, Small Luxuries: Sneakers, arrives in October 2026 from Motorbooks. Release details on this site are checked against the brand's own product information before publication, and anything we cannot confirm is labelled rather than stated.

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