Shaquille O’Neal is one of the most influential players ever. Yet, despite the fame, he has always cared about his fans. That was one of the reasons that led to him leaving Reebok back in 1998. He wanted to provide affordable shoes. While he has still found tremendous success in business, his sneaker footprint dwarfs in comparison to other legends like Michael Jordan. Notably, His Airness earned over $250 million from Nike in just 2022! However, without a major brand backing him, Big Diesel is yet to achieve such numbers.

Since he left the company, Reebok has also lost its hold on the market. But 25 years later, the Lakers legend is back with the shoe company to finally make some changes and bring it back as a staple in basketball. Shaq is ready to step into a new role and will be modeling as a part of it.

Hints on Shaquille O’Neal’s upcoming modeling career

Recently, Reebok revealed that they are bringing in some heavy hitters from the sports world to the management team. They announced Shaquille O’Neal as the president of basketball, and Allen Iverson as the vice president of basketball in the company. Reebok is looking to set its feet back in the basketball industry and is looking to make a mark with this announcement. Talking about setting the feet, Shaquille O’Neal was recently asked about it.

During an interview with SportsCenter, Shaq was asked if he would be modeling for his shoe, as he often shows his feet to the public.

This led to Shaq replying, “Of course, cause you know my toes look scrumptious bobo. You know my toes look nice.“

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He revealed that he would be modeling his shoes. His son Myles 0’Neal is already a model. In the past, Shaq has talked about losing weight and modeling with his kids. Now, the 2000 NBA MVP is one step closer to achieving it.

It looks like this is a start towards that but just in a different form. But will Reebok be able to stay on the same court as LeBron and Jordan in the shoe and apparel industry?

Shaquille O’Neal is planning a Reebok revival

The 4x NBA champion’s main job as the president of Reebok Basketball is to recruit players for the brand and help in the development of the business.

Reebok was a major stakeholder in basketball back in the day. This led to them signing a young Shaquille O’Neal when he was just 19 years old. Now, years later, rather than bringing him onto the team as a representative, Reebok wants Shaq to take the reigns and take them to the next level and back to their former glory.

The team has revealed that, currently, basketball constitutes less than 10% of their overall sales. They hope for it to grow to 20 to 25% over the next few years. With this in mind, the brand is also focusing on getting into more apparel that can be worn off the court as well.

This is a clear sign that they are looking to face Nike and get into some of their markets. They will be starting this by selling their Shaq for President T-shirts soon. Certainly, style icon Allen Iverson will play a major role in turning the tides as well.

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