Norris Cole revealed the intricate details behind landing his first Nike deal on the Club 520 Podcast. He recounted that he initially had an Adidas contract in hand. He consequently began wearing the signature shoes of their star athlete at the time, Derrick Rose. However, a trip to LeBron James’ house changed everything.
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The situation centered around the early days of Cole’s 2011/12 rookie season with the Heat. The NBA just entered a 161-day lockout in July 2011. This left him with no choice but to train in isolation with his fellow Ohio native, James.
Cole went to James’ house one day for their usual practice session. However, he made a fatal mistake. The Heat guard walked into the home of one of Nike’s biggest stars wearing Rose’s Adidas shoes. This didn’t sit well with LBJ, as Cole recalled,
“I worked out with Bron a couple of times cause he is from Ohio. I went to his crib… I walked into that man’s house with some D-Rose Adidas and he looked at me crazy.“
One of James‘ friends immediately called out Cole. Although the Heat rookie tried to explain himself, James was unwilling to budge. Instead, ‘The King’ helped him land a Nike deal. This marked the beginning of his lifelong partnership with the brand.
“One of his homies was like, ‘Bruh, why are you wearing Adidas?’ I said, ‘Cause they are gonna pay me’… He said, ‘What they paying you? Whatever they paying you, a guy is gonna call you tomorrow’… A guy from Nike called me the next day and said, ‘Hey, what do you want for us to switch you over?’… I just sent him the straight contract that Adidas gave me and I switched to Nike that next day.”
Cole has remained a loyal representative of Nike ever since and wears their shoes to this day. This partnership also helped nurture his inner sneakerhead, as he got to test and experiment with different signature shoes from the brand.
Cole once spoke about his favorite Nike shoes
In a 2015 interview with SneakerWatch, Cole admitted he loved wearing James’ Nike collection shoes. His favorite at the time was the Nike LeBron 12s, which had been released just six months earlier. He also confessed to enjoying Michael Jordan’s Air Jordan Retro collection and Kyrie Irving’s signature shoes, The Kyrie.
“Right now, definitely like the LeBron 12s. [I have] been wearing heavy doses of them lately. Also love the Retro Jordans… New Kyrie Irvings. Those are nice too.”
Cole’s love for Nike became even more evident a few months later. He became one of the first players to wear and endorse LeBron’s Nike Zoom LeBron Soldier 9 shoes. This was likely a gesture of gratitude toward his former teammate, as he remains thankful for the opportunity to be a Nike athlete.
