Shaquille O’Neal Turned 2 Childhood Struggles Into Heartwarming Philosophy for His $2.5 Billion Brand

From signing with Reebok to leaving it, to coming back to the brand, Shaquille O’Neal’s shoe philosophy has remained the same. It is derived from his primary struggles throughout his youth till he was earning big bucks in the NBA. Now that he’s in a leadership role at Reebok, he’s injecting his sneaker beliefs into the brand.

O’Neal has made no secret about his family’s struggles to find shoes that fit him on a budget. It’s what prompted him to initially leave Reebok.

The Shaq-losophy of sneakers

After Adidas sold Reebok to Authentic Brands Group for $2.5 billion, one of ABG’s well-known stakeholders, Shaquille O’Neal took over Reebok’s basketball division. President Shaq made a grand return to Reebok, where he was the face of the first signature shoe by them. He is shaping Reebok’s image for youth who have the same struggles he had in his youth.

“I had two struggles. One, you couldn’t have the size. Two, I couldn’t afford them,” he told Hypebeast recently. This shaped his philosophy about footwear in general. “That’s why I always try to make shoes that are very affordable. Period. Shoes that look like they cost a lot of money but we don’t want to kill ’em with the price.”

By the time he was 16 years old, Shaq was 6’1″ and wore size 17 shoes. He dreamed of wearing Air Jordans like any high school athlete in the ’80s. But his family could neither afford the hottest-selling Nike shoe nor were there Air Jordans that fit him.

His stepfather once reached out to Atlanta-based footwear entrepreneur, Bruce Teilhaber, for dress shoes for Shaq. Instead of charging them $200, Teilhaber told them to let Shaq pay him back when he’s an NBA legend. Teilhaber’s foresight came true and he’s been O’Neal’s shoe guy for three decades and counting.

Shaq has extended similar kindness to kids like him. He gifted a couple of teens with the same shoe size as him with dozens of pairs of shoes from Teilhaber. O’Neal also donated Reebok sneakers to the 160 young members of the Boys & Girls Club in South Los Angeles ahead of Thanksgiving.

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O’Neal has been staunch about making shoes affordable for everyone. It’s one of the reasons he initially parted ways with Reebok.

Shaquille O’Neal’s relationship with Reebok

O’Neal had popular signature shoes like the Shaq Attaq and Shaqnosis with Reebok. But he chose to walk away from a five-year extension worth $40 million when a lady scolded him in the street for overcharging kids for shoes. Realizing her point, O’Neal left Reebok to launch an affordable line of footwear with Walmart.

At the FN Achievement Awards, Shaq’s business partner revealed that O’Neal orchestrated his return to Reebok. As the second-biggest stakeholder in ABG, he urged the company to acquire the label from Adidas in 2021.

All those years ago, he told the lady he was not in a position to decide the prices. This time, he’s in a better role to make Reebok as approachable as he dreamed about.

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