Lonzo Ball has tried each of the major sneaker brands during his eye-catching stint in this year's Summer League and could likely make a choice of one of the holy trinity (Nike, Adidas, Under Armour) of sneaker kingdom in the near future.
Teammate Brandon Ingram and fellow rising star Andrew Wiggins are doing their best to pitch the No. 2 overall selection to join the pack at Adidas and become a part of the brand's family of NBA athletes.
“Adidas is a family, I think we’re the best family,” Wiggins told Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated's The Crossover, when asked for his pitch to Ball. “[Lonzo] should come to the best thing that’s happening. Come to the family. If he has something great going on, then that’s him. Their whole [Ball] family has something good going on. I [chose Adidas] because it felt like a family, the treatment. I built a relationship with a lot of people from Adidas from college and it kept going to the NBA.”
The 22-year-old has been familiar with the brand since the high school level and hasn't left its side ever since.
“Loyalty,” Wiggins said. “I’ve been with these guys since my freshman or sophomore year in high school. They treated me well and they treated my team well. My AAU coach Jerry Stackhouse helped me out a lot. I think when it came down to decision time, they showed a lot of love. When it came to decision time, I showed them love back and showed my loyalty and the respect that they gave me.”
Ingram, who is only a year into the league, has taken a more reserved approach with his new team, but would be happy to pitch the opportunity to Ball if the company asked that of him.
“As kids, we dream of playing in different basketball players’ shoes,” Ingram said of Ball’s sneaker-hopping. “He’s just playing the game smart from the business side and the basketball side. As a pro basketball player, he’s doing what he wants. That’s what he does. Nah, [we don’t talk about shoe brands]. We talk about basketball and how we want to kill the next opponent or just stuff away from basketball. We may get into a conversation about [sneakers] every once in a while but nothing like the fans are talking about.”
Adidas has its best product out on the market, the Crazy Explosive 17, which will be worn by both Wiggins and Ingram this season.
“This is our pinnacle performance on-court team shoe,” Adidas’s Crazy Explosive 17 product manager Alex Zerzan told The Crossover. “This year’s design is more streamlined and tailored to the ankle, it’s more comfortable. You don’t really notice that the shoe is there. Athletes want their shoe to perform but they also don’t want to be distracted by it. If they’re thinking about the shoe, they’re not thinking about going out and dropping 40.”
“Wiggins and other NBA players are putting a lot of force on their joints and on their feet over an 82-game season,” he said. “Boost never really breaks down, providing tremendous energy throughout the full life of the compound.”
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