March Madness referee suffers wardrobe malfunction during NCAA tournament game between Akron and Creighton with backup official having to come to the rescue with replacement sneakers

A March Madness referee suffered a wardrobe malfunction during the NCAA tournament game between Akron and Creighton. 

Kelly Pfeifer, who was officiating Thursday's game, had to change his shoes after 'blowing out' one of them. 

Thankfully for Pfeifer, the backup official Adam Flore reportedly wore the same size and lent him his pair so that the referee could continue in the game in Pittsburgh. 

Initially, Pfeifer only asked to swap one shoe but with the two officials wearing conflicting brands, he had to borrow the pair from Flore.  

The broadcast picked up Pfeifer heading off to the sidelines where he completed the shoe swap with the backup. 

NCAA referee Kelly Pfeifer suffered a wardrobe malfunction when his sneaker blew out 

Backup official Adam Flore wore the same size and lent Pfeifer his own pair of sneakers

The incident came with 18:45 left on the clock in the second half of Akron vs Creighton

The incident came with 18:45 left on the clock in the second half of Akron vs Creighton. 

No. 3 Creighton went on to win the first round clash, beating the No. 14 Zips 77-60. 

Zion Williamson suffered a similar issue while a Duke University star back in February 2019. 

Williamson's shoe ripped in half less than one minute into the 2019 game against the University of North Carolina, which caused the player to fall and injure his knee, keeping him out of the rest of the matchup. 

UNC went on to win 88-72 and Nike's shares took a hit, dropping by one percent the following morning. 

'We are obviously concerned and want to wish Zion a speedy recovery. The quality and performance of our products are of utmost importance,' Nike said in a statement at the time. 

'While this is an isolated occurrence, we are working to identify the issue.'