球鞋
qiú xié · HSK 2
athletic shoes
👟 球鞋 = ball (球) + shoe (鞋) — shoes for ball sports
球 means ball and 鞋 means shoe, so 球鞋 literally reads as ball-shoes: footwear made for playing ball games. English generalised this to any athletic sneaker.
球 — jade radical 玉/王 + qiu 求 (phonetic)
球 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 王 is the 'jade' radical, indicating the original meaning: a fine piece of jade or a jade ornament. The right side 求 supplies the sound 'qiu'. Over time the meaning broadened from a jade sphere to any round object, and today it most commonly means 'ball' or 'globe'.
鞋 — leather radical 革 + 圭 (phonetic)
鞋 is a phono-semantic compound. The leather radical 革 on the left signals the meaning, since shoes were traditionally made of leather or hide. The right side 圭 supplies the sound, giving the modern reading xié. The character has long meant 'shoe' in everyday use.