The forgotten NBA signature shoes From Starbury to Dada Spree: do you remember all the kicks?
According to this article published on Forbes in August 2019, Klay Thompson ranks fourteenth among the NBA players with the richest technical sponsorship contracts related to shoes. Steph Curry's "twin" - fourth in this special ranking thanks to the 20 million a season that Under Armor will guarantee him until 2024 - entered into a contract for two million dollars a year shortly before the start of the 2014/2015 season. Chinese brand Anta. After the success of the "KT1" and "KT2" models in 2016, the agreement was renewed for a total of 80 million dollars in the following 10 years: a figure higher than the 6 million per year that Li Ning guaranteed from 2012 to 2018 in Dwyane Wade to convince him to leave behind the memorable parenthesis with Jordan, before the renewal for life of almost 12 million per season.
It is not the first time in history that second-rate brands manage to carve out an important role in the signature shoes market. The period between the 90s and the 00s in particular produced models of absolute cult without their iconicity necessarily being linked to brands such as Nike or adidas. We have chosen ten that ended inexplicably on the back burner.
10 - Converse All-Star Rodman
"If you make a proportion with the earnings of 1990 compared to today, it is as if you had sold the current consideration of LeBron and Kobe," said David Falk in an interview with GQ in 2015. In 1989, when the center of the Knicks decided to found Ewing Athletics after the end of his contract with adidas, doubts were many. But they soon ended up swept away by the $ 100 million earned in 1990 thanks to the "33 Hi": an iconic model that had immediate association with the player who wore its strength. The autograph in relief and the 33 in plain sight on the heel did the rest. After the release of 20 models between 1990 and 1996, in 2012 Ewing Athletics reintroduced the "33 Hi" almost by popular acclaim: "Everywhere people go ask me for those shoes: it is fantastic that they are still all like that today interested in my brand" said Ewing.
