Rebellious, pizza-loving, (partially) skateboarding dudes in their adolescence: There could be a worse foundation for sneaker collabs and popcultural cross references than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
So naturally in over four decades of Turtlemania, there have been countless crossover moments surrounding Donatello, Raphael, Michelangelo and Leonardo – from (un)forgettable ones to projects of the heart. With no claim to a definite ranking, here come five memorable example of TMNT collabs – in the sense of sneaker collabs, but as in “joining forces” as well:
“Coming Out Of Their Shells” Tour (1990)
When the Turtles turned from a rather gory comic series into the more family-friendly animated series, the Saturday morning sensation introduced some goofiness to the Turtles universe that made it blow up worldwide. One recurring theme of the series was the group’s obsession with pizza – so frequently actually, that the Turtles became as synonymous with the Italian dish as with Italian painters or martial arts. Which leads us to a spectacle which a YouTube commenter summed up with “This is my earliest memory of becoming aware of the concept of Jumping the Shark”.
At the height of Turtlemania in 1990, the stage musical “Coming Out of Their Shells” featured the Turtles as a rock band (because, we guess, maximum crossover). The spectacle went on a 40 show tour across the U.S. and was pretty successful. Despite a disturbing appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show. Despite some horribly bad costumes. Despite their arch-nemesis Shredder, who looks even worse. Why did this obscurity make this list then? Because it was sponsored by Pizza Hut, which is just the perfect no-brainer for a TMNT collab. Hats off to who came up with, even if it’s bizarre to watch nowadays.
adidas Superstar ‘Shelltoe’ (2024)
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of TMNT, whose roots date back to their 1984 comic book debut, adidas payed tribute to the heroes’ iconic shells with a special edition of one of their most beloved silhouettes:
Delivering a clever take on the adidas Superstar’s iconic design, the pair gave the toe cap the turtle shell pattern makeover. The bright green leather upper was a hommage to the 90s live-action movies that marked the big screen debut of the Turtles. The packaging was nodding to the one of TMNT action figures – and that’s not even all of the details the head-turning pair boasted. Now that’s what you call a standout collab.
“Injustice 2” (2017)
The fighting video game “Injustice 2”, based on the DC Universe, is centered around Batman’s battle against a newly formed supervillain group. To make things worse, the alien Brainiac also joins the party, which forces the Dark Knight to consider freeing the imprisoned Superman for help. Now guess whose also invited to the party?
Talk of a perfect crossover here: The Turtles had their own popular video games long before, tons actually, but the major share of them was side-scrolling beat-em-ups. Given the TMNT universe’s roots in 2D (as in comics and cartoons), those early games were great too, don’t get us wrong. The four fighters’ essence is martial arts too though, so being able to attack Hellboy and the likes with a skateboarding Michelangelo in 3D just hits different (pun intended).
PS: Bonus points for Injustice 2 for featuring all four Turtles as full-fledged fighters – that’s something “Street Fighter 6” missed out on when the game’s promising announcement of a TMNT collab turned out as nothing more than TMNT gear to customize fighter avatars as the four.
TMNT x PUMA MB (2025)
The most recent example in this list fuses LaMelo Ball’s signature PUMA MBs with TMNT-inspired designs and nods to the colorful look of the first Turtles cartoon: The orange and light blue shades of Michelangelo’s and Leonardo’s masked visages can be found on one character-driven pair, while Raphael and Donatello split across the other.
Capturing the bold aesthetic of the Turtles’ world, the PUMA MB x TMNT drop is as far from conventional as anything Turtles-connected demands: the shoes’ playful design has fun pushing design boundaries and couldn’t match better with how they first introduced themselves on TV screens: “So extreme, out the sewer, like laser beams!”
Go go, Power Rangers Ninja Turtles! (1998)
To say that 1998’s “Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation”, their first and only live-action television series, received mixed reviews among fans is an understatement. To blame it all on the show’s fifth Turtle, the female rather-unpopular character Venus de Milo, is not fair though: after all, the show was still a production by Saban Entertainment, which has often been criticized for valuing quantity over quality.
An entertaining side effect of the TMNT entering Haim Saban’s universe was every 90s kids’ wildest dream though: When the Turtles appeared in “Power Rangers in Space”, another Saban production. In the episode “Shell Shocked” they were brainwashed to fight the Rangers before teaming up with them. Including the Turtles space surfing on Galaxy Gliders, the Space Rangers’ surfboard-like vehicles, in the end. Can it get more 90s than that?
