There have been rumors that Dwight Howard was signing with PEAK Sports, but nothing official had been announced by either party involved. All we really knew is that Howard was no longer going to be endorsed by adidas.
According to FOX Sports, Howard is officially leaving adidas for PEAK Sports. Unfortunately, big men just don’t sell shoes, so signing Howard is a strange move. Yes, it’ll get the brand’s name out there a little, but it won’t make people buy the shoes. Even big guys like Blake Griffin, that have charisma and some sort of charm, can’t move units. The Super.Fly models sell well because the perform well, but not because Blake wears them. That’s not to say Howard’s shoes haven’t performed well, the adiPower Howard 2 is still a favorite of mine, but the rest of them have been treated the same way he’s treated his career… seems to be no care or love involved.
There’s no word on if Howard will get a signature model or if he’ll just wear team models, but he’ll be rocking PEAK this coming NBA Season so we’ll soon find out.
I don’t think the move does anything for the U.S. market, but then again Dwight doesn’t move the needle here in the U.S. either. Perhaps it gets PEAK more visibility in China. If they give him a lion’s haul along with sig and such, I would question that. If they go with him just appearing on PEAK product ads and maybe a very limited run of a sig (think 1st Way of Wade) then maybe that works.
Dwight has minimal appeal in the US. he had some based on a likeable personality in his Orlando days before the real Dwight came out. it makes sense to go w/ a Chinese brand bc no US market would have him. adidas has been wanting out from under that deal for years I’m sure
i miss that guy… sadly the real dwight is an *ss…
the fast dont lie ad was epic…
I think this is bigger for Peak than it is for Dwight.
Big men have a hard time creating sales with signature models, but I question why athletes with chronic leg issues go outside the well known brands. I’m not a fanboy of Nike, but they have a bigger assortment of shoes to pick from, probably do a better job of customizing shoes, and treat you like you are part of a family. I have seen Peak send players 20 shoes in bags to players. They don’t even put them in a box lol.
Uh, no.
There is a loooooooong list of big men who have had issues with Nike shoes, going as far back as Patrick Ewing in ’99. Nike placed him in a zoom based shoe for the year, and when the finals came about, Pat was out with a worn out achillies tendon. We can go down the line from then with at least several notable names that was with Nike, and their shoes did not help those players in particular. The most famous recent story is that of Greg Oden, which a specialist recommended treatment, and both Nike and the Trailblazers ignored his suggestion, and the rest is a history that could have been prevented.
*were with Nike
I don’t give a damn.
Kinda saw it coming, you mentioned the Howard 2, which was the last real effort to get Howard a premier shoe, after that it was glorified team-shoes, and lately just team-shoes with a tiny bit of a styling tweak.
Really sad, the Commander-line was big-guy heaven, and until the Howard 2, adidas did right by big-guys(which is rare in any brand these days), but since……. 🙁
Those Power Cowards are silly cheap on finish line rite now, maybe they will give them away as a gift when you buy some shoe cleaner or insoles or even laces. The dude still has me pissed from that lame lakers season, walking around with the purple head and and he never even sweat as a laker because he was a lazy over paid zombie. Hate the punk. I hope peak hooks him up with a sig line called “broken game and dreams hi”
Might be a good time to buy them D Howard 5’s now. It’s a shame, when he’s focused, he’s a beast of a player.