Style - Kicks and Gear / Dec 3, 2008 / 1:52 pm
Li-Ning Invades The U.S.
Li-Ning’s BD-PreThe trend of players heading overseas for more guap as spilled over into the land of sneaker endorsements. The days of athletes signing with major US sneaker corporations like Nike, adidas, and Jordan Brand are over. Recently, Jason Kidd signed with Chinese based sneaker company Peak.
Baron Davis has followed in J-Kidd’s footsteps. Davis is now reppin another Chinese based sneaker. The Li-Ning BD-Pre is Baron’s signature shoe. Only available in mainland China, The Li-Ning BD-Pre hopes to shake up the basketball performance community.
Li-Ning’s BD-PreThis version isn’t B-Diddy’s player exclusive, but it is the same silhouette as the one Davis is rocking on court.
If you were an NBA athlete would you sign with a company like Li-Ning?
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
JCARR says:
Why not?? I mean most shoes are made in china, so I am guessing they are made of the same material. Whats with the back of the shoe though???
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Pinoyboy says:
I don’t know.I would still rock some Nikes. Then again i guess these are kinda cool
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Mamba says:
Eh im sure the money is good,
As an American ballplayer I wouldnt be thrilled that it is only sold in China,
I dont really think that the bigs (Nike, Adidas, reebok) feel to much of a hit, not when Nike has Mamba and LeBron,
Wonder how much Baron and J Kidd got paid
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:07 pm
L.S. says:
Fuck no… Jordan Brand all the way…
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:12 pm
P says:
Those right there are Trash…but if they look right and fell good on the court dont care what they are….
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Flip says:
Dime, ADIDAS is not a major US sneaker company. It is a German corporation. Do your research!
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Richard Wellner says:
These are very nice sneakers in the picture. Do I have to go to China to buy a pair?
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Jeronimo says:
@ Flip (#6): You beat me to the punch.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Bruce says:
J-Kidd? The man was with Jordan Brand. That sucks! This is it like going from first class to coach.
Nike or Jordans all the way.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:40 pm
SayItAintSo says:
Reebok goes with Adidas too, I think. I’m pretty sure Nike (and Jordan Brand, I guess) is like the only U.S. based big name shoe company when it comes to sports.
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
SeKurity says:
Damon Jones was the first to sign with that shoe company!
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:55 pm
tbone says:
only a matter of time before the chinese knock off their own shoes.
December 3rd, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Ansonious says:
No matter what when it comes to the NBA and it’s players it boils down to money, not what brand, not what would be best, not what people think, say, or like it comes down to money. Look what Steph tried doing a few years ago trying to preach he wanted to bring high quality shoes to low income households, all bs just trying to defer the huge market on sneakers into his pocket, remember Ben Wallace tried the same thing, Shaq with his generic brand at Payless Shoe Stores still, and I wonder if anybody actually bought those kicks seeing as how I’ve never seen anybody sporting them. None the less money is what puts this conversation to a close. I’m out like NBA players caring about what brand they get a deal from peace!
December 3rd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Gerard says:
I don’t know, I mean I have some respect for Marbury for trying to do that. Hakeem did the same I believe back in the day.
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Matthew Del Negro says:
The best part is that Jose Calderon has a deal with Li-Ning , even after he was a part of that spanish team that took the racist Beijing photo .. Jose is thaaat gooood , baby .
the racism is killing me inside !
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Richard Wellner says:
Matthew: Racism has nothing to do with the dollar, or the yen. And that’s assuming that it was racist in the first place; which I don’t think it was.
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Jeronimo says:
Matthew (#15): As far as I know, the Spanish national squad has a deal with Li-Ning, not Calderon. (Li-Ning does the uni for Spain and Argentina). Calderon (again, as far as I know) has always worn Nike, at least since he got in the NBA. And those kicks in the picture are god-awful.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:32 pm
solomon says:
i wonder how long the lifespan of those kicks are…
btw, they’re damn awful… 1st time i saw the logo, i swore those are china-made shoe – and of all people, the 1st time i saw those were on chuck hayes feet, while clyde and co’ was busy dissing his FT routine…
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Casey Lee says:
K1X.
http://www.k1x.com/
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Stephon says:
To Richard Wellner Post #16:
That picture was definitely racist.
How about let’s say South Africa,(which has a multi-cultural population, yet many natives remain african descent) which is holding the 2010 World Cup Soccer, and team Spain poses a team photo mimicking the “socially perceived african look” of “big lips” by using their hands to stretch out their lips, while stating that their intention was a friendly joke to the host country?
Let’s see how they can get away with that. The Chinese government was humble and tolerating enough to not lash out on the Spaniards. Try doing that to TEAM USA 2008 where all players are african americans. See what happens.
You’re an ignorant idiot for saying Yen, which is the Japanese currency.
The Chinese currency is “Yuan” or “Renmenbi”.
Make sure u repeat after me if you want to sound smart next time.
December 4th, 2008 at 1:51 am
MOVEZ says:
cut the check
December 4th, 2008 at 2:22 am
KLM2308 says:
@Richard Wellner (post#16)
first off “Stephon” said most of what i was going to say…
more of a poignant image/comparison would be this…
following up with the South Africa analogy… what if the Spanish team decided to do a photoshoot all in blackface in an effort to ‘joke’ about the african “look”…. i’d like to see them deal with the ensuing outrage…
it’s the same deal – their attempt at a “this is how i think you look” joke was definitely racist…
what boggles my mind is that not ONE person in the whole process from photo to print said ANYTHING about it or even hinted at the fact that it just MIGHT be a little racist…. that’s a lot of people for a racist photo to go through and for no one to say anything about it… Photographer > the WHOLE team > Newspaper publishers
December 4th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
wz says:
http://i0.sinaimg.cn/ty/k/p/2008-12-01/U1614P6T12D4102064F44DT20081201132425.jpg
Calderon is a member of Li-ning now. see the picture above!
December 4th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
wz says:
http://i1.sinaimg.cn/ty/k/p/2008-12-04/U1614P6T12D4107202F44DT20081204132919.jpg
Chuck Hayes has cooperated with Li-ning for a long time.
February 15th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
A MAN says:
As u can see on that picks, yes, CALDERON uses them…AS the spanish and argentina team does. But the biggest name that wears them is SHAQUILLE O´NEAL…with his own logo, ok…but go to LI-NING WEB ( http://intl.li-ning.com/ ) and have a look…
about the racism thing, look, some hackneyed subject are used with none bad idea at all…u can see lots of films meking fun with arabs, latins, black or jewish in the states, don´t u? so what? havent u ever use a mexican hat to speak about latin people as meaning that all overseas latin are mexicans?
yes, the idea is similar to the one u talk about…imagine the team with black paint on their face as showing that they are black people…in the states u are very sensitive to this things but, hey, u are black , i am white, he is yellow or wahtever and there´s nothing wrong on that…In spain and most of the european countries no one say ¨coloured¨and things like that because no one sees something wrong at saying black…but u can ask many black people here and they´ll tell u that they hadn´t fell bad with that…for example to LOU ROE ( http://www.gipuzkoabasket.com/equipo/roe_es.php ), an USA basketballer that plays on GIPUZKOA BASKET CLUB ( http://www.gipuzkoabasket.com/equipo/equipo-plantilla_es.php#nogo )of San Sebastian, the Basque Country, Spain, that talked about that on the nlocal newspaper…so ,what i mean is that, maybe, some people thought that it was a racist action but it was TOTALLY a joke that LI-NING new also with no one affected on China…so if they see nothing wrong in it…should we?
About the sneakers:
One of the biggest fights in China sportbrands actually are the feet of Houston Rockets players…why?as YAO MING is reebok (brand owned by adidas)for 10years, the most seen team of China must have more sponsored players, by chinese brands, of course: Scola (Argentina)AND Francis uses ANTA ( http://en.anta.com/star_Scola.php ), Battier uses PEAK ( http://www.peaksport.com/en/brand_sponsor.html ), Hayes uses LI-NING…But the biggest poinf of all is that LESLIE ALEXANDER, owner of tha rockets paid 234 millions to be the principal accionist of the brand ANTA
Damon Jones of Clevelan duses LI-NING too.
bye, and have a nice time with the ball!