Okay, so let me tell you about this Jordan Brand and Kawhi Leonard thing I was messing around with.
First off, I’m a huge basketball fan, especially a fan of guys like Kawhi who just get it done on both ends of the floor. And of course, Jordan Brand is, well, Jordan Brand. A legend, you know? So I was curious about their connection, especially since Kawhi had that whole New Balance situation.
I started by just digging around online. I mean, Google is your best friend, right? I was trying to figure out the timeline of when Kawhi was actually with Jordan. Turns out, it was way back in the day, like when he first came into the league with the Spurs.
Then I went deeper. Started looking for old photos of him wearing Jordans. It’s kinda cool to see how much his style has changed. He was rocking some classic retros back then, the kind of stuff that still looks fresh today. Think Air Jordan 1s, some of the numbered models, the classics.
I even tried to find interviews from that time, to see if he ever talked about wearing Jordans. Didn’t find a ton, but I did see some mentions of him appreciating the history and the performance aspect of the shoes. Standard athlete-speak, but still interesting.
The big thing that got me hooked was trying to understand why he left Jordan Brand. That’s where things got kinda murky. You hear rumors about money, about creative control, all that stuff. It’s hard to know the real story, but it seems like he wanted more input into his own signature shoe, which is totally understandable.
After that, I started diving into the whole New Balance thing. How he helped build that brand’s basketball division, how they gave him his own signature shoe, the Kawhi 1. That was a smart move on his part, and it’s cool to see him have so much influence. He bet on himself, you know?
Eventually, I went down a rabbit hole comparing the Jordan Brand approach to athlete endorsements versus the New Balance approach. Jordan Brand is huge, established, with a proven track record. New Balance was the underdog, willing to give Kawhi more say in things.
So, in the end, I didn’t “achieve” anything specific, like designing a shoe or something. But it was a fun dive into the business side of basketball, the marketing, the endorsements, and the personal choices that athletes make. It just made me appreciate Kawhi’s career and the Jordan Brand legacy even more.
And hey, now I have a better excuse to buy more sneakers, right?
