Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid have won the last four MVPs, but neither is currently signed with one of the top athlete shoe brands in the U.S., and Gilbert Arenas has a theory for that. During an interview with DJ Vlad, Arenas said big men just can’t sell shoes as well as guards do because of the consumer base.
“Jokic got three MVPs, he can’t crack the top eight in jersey sales,” Arenas said. “Shoes, Nike didn’t touch him. Adidas didn’t touch him, no big shoe company touched him… He had to go some outside company, something 360, I don’t know what the f*** is it.”
DJ Vlad wondered why Nike or Adidas didn’t give Jokic a shoe and Arenas said you can’t sell him and his personality.
“How many eight-year-olds are in the basketball court trying to be Jokic? … Same thing with Embiid,” Arenas continued. “Big guys is just hard to sell because the customer is from the ages of basically four to about 17. So, the size of those guys, can’t even fathom how tall you are.”
Vlad stated that even Shaquille O’Neal didn’t sell a lot of shoes and had to start his own company at one point.
“Had to pay less shoes, make it really cheap,” Arenas said. “So, it’s cheaper to get. It’s affordable for the poor kids… Giannis’ (Antetokounmpo) style kind of helps him sell shoes but, for the most part, big men never sell shoes.”
“When I’m buying shoes for my kids, think about this size (short) vs. this size (tall), right? They’re guards,” Arenas added. “They think they’re guards, it don’t matter how tall they’re gonna be in the future. When I’m buying shoes, they’re the Ja Morant’s, the Curry’s, it’s guards because that’s who they are. They’re little people thinking.”
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It is an interesting explanation. Jokic was previously with Nike, but despite winning multiple MVPs, didn’t have a signature shoe deal. Then last year, the 29-year-old’s partnership with the brand ended and he signed a multi-year signature shoe deal with 361, a Chinese brand.
As for Embiid, he cut ties with Under Armour and signed a multi-year deal with Skechers earlier this year. He was signed with UA for about five years and in that time, only one signature shoe was produced, the Under Armour Embiid One.
Those shoes were launched in 2020 and you’d assume they didn’t sell all that well, which is why another never came out, despite Embiid becoming one of the best players in the NBA. It perhaps proves Arenas’ point on them.
As for O’Neal, he had signed with Reebok in 1992 and that partnership ended in 1998. Unlike Embiid and Under Armour, though, a fair few signature shoes were released in that time and the Hall of Famer had an interesting reason to cut ties with the brand. O’Neal revealed how a conversation with a woman led to him starting his own brand to help struggling families.
“I had a Reebok deal, $40M for five and I’m leaving the arena one day, and this lady and ripping me a new one: ‘You motherf***ers charging these babies all this money for the shoes’.
“I had like $2,000 in my pocket and said, ‘Maam, I don’t make the prices… Here ya go, and she smacked the money out of my hand. ‘Why don’t you motherf***ers make a shoe that’s affordable?’
“…and I thought about it. You know what, she’s right. So that day I cut ties with Reebok and started my own brand. I told them to keep to keep the money, this ain’t right.”
O’Neal got into a partnership with Walmart and his shoes were being sold at $12. He made them affordable for everybody and claimed that, as a result, about 400 million pairs were sold, which is ridiculous.
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