{"id":273649,"date":"2013-02-15T11:00:41","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T17:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicekicks.com\/?p=273649"},"modified":"2022-09-16T13:33:12","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T18:33:12","slug":"nba-all-star-diaries-2010s-dwyane-wade-details-his-first-five-months-with-li-ning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/nba-all-star-diaries-2010s-dwyane-wade-details-his-first-five-months-with-li-ning\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA All-Star Diaries (2010s): Dwyane Wade Details His First Five Months with Li-Ning"},"content":{"rendered":"
It has now been five months since Dwyane Wade<\/strong> made the announcement he was moving to Chinese sportswear brand Li-Ning<\/strong>. Since then, we’ve seen a multitude of Way of Wade colorways (Wade said he’s worn 28 different colorways on court), his first signing as Li-Ning’s chief brand officer, and a player exclusive that has taken on a life of its own.<\/p>\n In the 2010s installment of our All-Star Diaries<\/em> series, Dwyane Wade details everything that has happened between him and the brand in the past five months. He also discusses what he has in store for this upcoming NBA All-Star Weekend.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: It has been five months now since you made the announcement and move to Li-Ning. What has changed, for better or for worse, in those five months?<\/strong><\/p>\n Dwyane Wade: Well, I obviously signed with those guys this summer, and I didn’t have a lot of time to understand how their brand works because of contract situations. We’re just now getting to a comfortable stage. It’ll take a little more time for us to really know each other and get our team in order, but I think we’re definitely getting there. I’m exited about the future. Early on, it was a struggle because we had such a short period of time to get things together. We only had a couple of months, and they did an unbelievable job of creating my product that I’m wearing now in a 2-month span – that’s really unheard of. So, that just shows you Li-Ning’s commitment.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: Well, I know one thing that has changed. You went from storing your “Dynasty” Way of Wades in the microwave to posing in McLarens with low-top Way of Wades…<\/strong><\/p>\n Dwyane Wade: [Laughs] Yeah, I’m just trying different things. When we first started off, I wanted a special mid-cut height, but I told them that as we go on, I may want to change some things, including the height of my shoe. I’ve never worn low-top shoes on court, but I’m not saying that I never will. So, right now, it’s just about trying different things out and doing things that I wasn’t able to do in the past. Like I said, I’m going to enjoy it and have fun with it.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: Speaking of having fun with it, it’s obvious that you guys are doing any and everything with your Way of Wade. Do you realize that you have worn more colorways of your signature shoe than any other signature basketball athlete right now? Snkrs Day: So, is that how the term ‘Team No Sleep’ came about? Snkrs Day: In addition to colorways, I’ve also seen your sneakers feature an abundance of materials, such as patent leather and tumbled leather. Is there one that you take a liking to more than the others? <\/p>\n Snkrs Day: I remember having a conference call with Li-Ning executive Brian Cupps and creative director of basketball Eric Miller in October about an upcoming shoe inspired by an animal we’ll be able to associate you with soon. Is that still in the works? How did that idea come about?<\/strong><\/p>\n Dwyane Wade: Well, you just have to find things that you like. This will not be like the mamba and Kobe. It’s not going to be me calling myself the Black Mamba or anything like that. This is the animal I did research on, and it’s an animal that I’ve worn before on other clothes and shoes. I love this animal, and I just wanted to own it in the basketball space. It’ll be something I unveil during All-Star Weekend, and it’s pretty much like me owning my own animal in a sense. I just want something that people can associate with me without seeing my name. I will have three different pairs during All-Star Weekend, but I think I’ll just do one pair in the first half and unveil another pair during the second half. We have the practice and photos shoots, so I may wear the third pair for one of those.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: I know you’re very big into fashion and you have a history of wearing sneakers formally. Have you worn the Way of Wades to a formal event yet?<\/strong><\/p>\n Dwyane Wade: All-Star Weekend might be the first time I decide to wear the Way of Wades out to a formal event. The first time I think I wore the Way of Wades out in public was when I broke out a pair of my Christmas shoes. I wore a red and green pair to one of my Christmas events. It wasn’t a pair that I wore on court, but they made me like five or six different red Way of Wades, and I decided to wear one that day.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: So, what has been the response from your family, friends and others close to you about your Li-Ning signatures? Snkrs Day: One of the biggest things I took away from the announcement in October is that you were not only going to be a signature athlete with Li-Ning, but also serve as chief brand officer. What have you done in that role so far? Dwyane Wade: I take my position with Li-Ning very seriously. As chief brand officer, my first guy that I snatched up was my teammate Udonis Haslem. I don’t know if you guys noticed his switch to Li-Ning on court. He’s my guy, so wherever I go or do something, I always want him to be a part of it if possible. He’s been wearing Li-Ning for the past two months now. Guys around the NBA are not afraid to make change these days. We played Indiana the other day, and I noticed George Hill wearing PEAKs. I had no clue he switched.<\/p>\n Snkrs Day: Are there any last words you’d like to leave us with? Dwyane Wade: Think about it – we did this in two months, so imagine what we can do with an entire year to work on these. I’m just really excited about what we have in store.<\/p>\n RELATED<\/strong>: NBA All-Star Diaries (2000s): Jerry Stackhouse Discusses the Beginnings of his Partnership with FILA |?NBA All-Star Diaries (1980s): George Gervin Explains Evolution of Nike Blazer & Current Sneaker Rotation?|?NBA All-Star Diaries (1990s): Dee Brown Relives Moments Before & After ?91 Dunk Contest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dwyane Wade details everything that has happened between him and the Li-Ning in the past five months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":273652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1225528],"tags":[1328,1208351,279372,1225537,1225529,1211540],"cultivate_rss":[],"class_list":{"2":"type-post"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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\nDwyane Wade: It’s so fun because I can be inspired by something I see in my hotel room, or I can be inspired by the conversation we’re having right now. I talk to my designers 5-6 days a week just to throw out ideas. We always come up with some good stuff. For example, I might be on a road trip to Chicago, so I might do a Chicago-colored shoe, or I might be going to Portland for the day, and that’s the hub for shoe companies, so I might be inspired to do a color with that in mind. It might be a message I send my designer one night while I’m sitting in the locker room before the game about the shoe, and then I check my email after the game and there’s drawings or colorups of what we just talked about before the game. We work extremely hard over here.?I had a meeting with them the other night, and I realized that before I switch to my playoff version, I will have worn 28 different colorways of the Way of Wade. I have never worn that many different colors of a shoe.<\/p>\n
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\nDwyane Wade: Well, ‘Team No Sleep’ is me paying homage to my team that works so hard in helping with my family, building my brand and things like that. They do the things that I’m not able to do every single day because I’m focused on basketball. I appreciate them so much. My cousins in Chicago have a line of shirts, so when we won the Finals this past season, I asked them to make me some “Team No Sleep” shirts to wear after the Finals. They made the shirts, and they arrived before the Finals, but I wanted to save them until after the season ended. Once we won, I was in the “Team No Sleep” shirt all night. The term kind of grew on its own. It went from that to us making a “Team No Sleep” shoe. That shoe was supposed to be exclusive to my family, but when I saw the finished product, I thought to myself, ‘Yo, we need to get this out somehow, someway.’ The shoe is different from anything else I’ve worn. My family just got my shoes for the first time the day before yesterday. They got a pair of the “Team No Sleep” player exclusives. We’ve been very methodical in our process of making sure it’s right before any pairs are given out. So, for the longest, all of my friends have been hitting me up about these – even my mom has asked me about getting a pair.<\/p>\n
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\nDwyane Wade: It’s funny because it’s different at different times. At the beginning of the year, tumbled leather was my stuff! I told the guys that I didn’t want anything else – only tumbled leather. As the season went on, I tried nubuck and patent leather. The “Team No Sleep” shoes is a reflective 3M shoe. It was a different material than what I’m used to, but I liked it. I’m going to continue to try some new makeups.<\/p>\n
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\nDwyane Wade: Just like everything, you’re going to have people who love it and people who don’t, but the biggest thing is, it’s starting to catch fans’ eyes more. I’ve had people say, ‘Man, I like it’, or ‘Man, I hate it’, or ‘I won’t buy it, but I like it’, or ‘I never thought I’d say this, but I want them.’ I’ve heard everything. I know that I’m doing something different that people are not used to in the United States, and I want to make sure people know that I’m doing everything I can to make sure that the product I put out is better than any product I’ve ever put out before. I also want it to be something my fans like. Later on, I’ll probably release some videos of the work I’ve done in those meetings with the Li-Ning guys, so they can see the process. If you see my shoe from when we first announced it in China to now, you can see that it has evolved.<\/p>\n
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