Nike and Jordan lost Dwyane Wade, now he’s one of their biggest rivals.
Dwayne Wade is considered by many to be the third best shooting guard of all time, and in 2023, has one of the most popular shoes in the world, the Way of Wade.
There are only 4 NBA players in history with life time shoe deals. It’s a list so exclusive that Stephen Curry who helped make Under Armour a billion dollar business doesn’t have one. The 4 are Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and now Dwyane Wade.
While Wade might have been the 5th overall pick in the 2003 draft class that included LeBron, Carmelo, and Bosh, he wasn’t really on the radar for a long time.
7 players from Wade’s AAU team were picked for the Nike camp. Wade thought he was a shoe in, he packed his bags, and was ready to go, but on the day of the camp, he found out, he wasn’t one of them. But that wasn’t the worst part and I’ll let Wade explain.
In high school, Wade was only the 101st ranked player in his class. Just barely in scout’s minds.
He wasn’t really recruited by many D1 schools except Marquette.
In that 2003 summer before the draft, Wade saw LeBron get a $90 million shoe deal with Nike before he had played a single game, but ok that’s the chosen one. Carmelo who also was a college star signed a 6 year $21 million deal with Jordan.
**And so Wade was perfectly in line and Nike still didn’t offer him*. Adidas completely passed up on him, yeah they didn’t fully trust Wade the same way they were willing to throw millions at other players. And so Dwyane Wade, rejected for a second time, signed with Converse, one of Nike’s brands, for $400,000 a year, a lot of money but less than 20% of Melo. It was the same rejection he had experienced 4 years earlier.
**But that would be a big mistake both in the short term and long term, but let’s talk about** the immediate impact because of all the players in this draft class out of all the future stars Wade would be the first to achieve the pinnacle.
You see, that rejection in high school had never really left Wade’s mind.
While LeBron would win rookie of the year, Wade would average 16 in his first season, then 24 in his second season becoming an All-Star and leading his team to the Eastern Conference Finals. Yeah in his second season, he was averaging 27.4 points and 6.6 assists in the playoffs, leading the #1 team in the EAST in the Converse ICON PEs.
In that summer, converse would release his first signature shoe, the Converse Wade 1, selling 1 million pairs globally.
And in 2006, Wade would average 27 and 6.7 and take the Heat to the finals. The Flash was crossing everyone, no one could keep him in front. And the Mavericks tried their best, but Wade would average 34.7 points, come back from down 2-0, and win the finals. I mean god.
Just like the Jordan brand was Nike’s biggest line that saved the brand and eventually became a brand under Nike and Li-Ning offered Wade just that with the Way of Wade, giving him full creative freedom for the shoe too and getting some ownership stake along with $60 million over 10 years.
And in China there was a problem. Kids who wanted affordable would by Anta or Peak, people who could afford more would get Nikes. Li-Ning was at crossroads, on the verge of collapse, but were hell bent on surviving, something Wade appreciated. They would raise more funds, open more stores, put everything into the Wade brand, it was the only focus, a long cry from high school where Nike wouldn’t even invite him or think about him when he was drafted or the Jordan brand who tried but couldn’t compete with other athletes among the bigger brand like LeBron or Kobe.
2018 is when there was a big change, 6 years later. Li Ning had been opening stores through out China and they shifted their model to also focus on life style and streetwear, using Wade and other stars at the forefront. They got a new CEO who was on the board of the company that owns Uniqlo. Li Ning was building and Wade’s brand was about to take off even more.
In 2019, they would grow over 30%.
In 2021, Li Ning would launch their US web store, coupled with their growing popularity internationally would grow their footwear 50% in one year. The Way of Wade brand would sign D’Angelo Russell, then Jimmy Butler, Cj McCollum, Fred VanVleet, just like Jordan. Safe to say Wade’s stake value in the company is worth a whole lot more now.
Now Way of Wade still isn’t in US retail stores, on their 11th version but even then they are expensive in the resale market. People want these because of how good they are, getting the seal of approval from many reviewers and hoopers. **And that’s led customers switching from Nike.**
From wanting to be a Nike athlete to being a strong competitor, alright Wade.