Shaquille O’Neal has accomplished just about everything a basketball player can dream of: championships, MVPs, and a Hall of Fame career. But even the most dominant player in NBA history has his share of “what if” moments. But this regret of Shaq’s has nothing to do with the world of basketball but instead with the sneaker world.
Advertisement
The bar was set pretty high in the ’80s when Michael Jordan and Nike came out with Air Jordans. The sneaker industry has not been the same since. Every NBA athlete who entered the signature sneaker market after him had that bar to compete with.
In 1992, Shaq signed with Reebok before his rookie season. Soon, he launched the brand’s first signature shoe, the Shaq Attaq series. Six years later, Shaq had an interaction with a woman who told him that he should make affordable shoes so his young fans could buy them too. That led to Shaq leaving Reebok and launching Dunkman in 2001.
However, decades later, the big fella is left with one regret. While talking to his podcast guest, Roy Wood Jr., about his sneaker obsession, Shaq revealed his regret.
He said, “That’s my only regret in the sneaker world. I wish I would have some Shaq 1s, 2s, 3s…That’s my only regret, but we’ll be back.” This regret stems from the fact that sneakerheads boast about their Jordan 1s, 2s…similarly, athletes like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and more have their own range of sneakers. Shaq wishes he had a collection like that to his name.
Shaq’s heart was always in the right place. He did what was the right thing to do and made signature shoes available for $30-$40. With this decision, he set himself apart from the industry’s race. He worked with Walmart to make his shoes accessible. By 2021, O’Neal had sold over 400 million pairs of his Dunkman shoes.
Shaquille O’Neal trademarked the Dunkman logo in college
The best athletes thrive the most under pressure. There’s something about proving the naysayers wrong and silencing an opposing crowd that gives them more reason to go all-in in their respective sport. Shaq had this mentality from a very early age, and it wasn’t restricted to just basketball.
At a Reebok event in 2013, he recalled how he was in a marketing class once, and his professor told him, “Big men can’t sell.” Shaq knew his potential better than anyone else and used the comment as motivation to fuel himself.
He got the idea to trademark the Dunkman logo from Jordan and before leaving school, he got the paperwork done. All that was left to do was give an identity to the Dunkman logo and make it iconic.
“I knew I was good, I thought I was going to be great, and it was my job and my people’s job to convince [brands] that I was going to be great and convince them to want to sell the product. The hard thing to do was make them believe in it, because no big guy in the history of marketing from the game [of basketball] has ever sold anything,” Shaq said. With such a strong drive, he ended up becoming the most marketable player in the history of the league.
