Dwyane Wade is in China, fulfilling his obligations to Li Ning and hanging with his steady, Gabrielle Union, who is a flatulista according to the hashtags. Good luck trying to get your hands on a pair of Wade’s kicks, though. The company has not set up a U.S. distribution system, and if you try to order online, you can’t. You have about as good of a chance of getting your hands on the latest Way of Wade kicks as you do of
There is news out there from my buddy and old cohort Marc Stein that Dwyane Wade’s deal with Li-Ning will pay him $10 million annually for 10 years, plus significant equity in the company. That is some serious cheddar. In case you missed it, we filed a story two days ago about Wade’s deal, noting that Li-Ning does not sell its products in U.S. retail stores … at least not yet. Wade is currently in China now, where many of his teammates
Dwyane Wade will wear these new Li-Ning sneakers Thursday night in Beijing. No, not at a store near You. Near Yu, which is a county in Shanxi Province in China. Not the easiest place to get to, either, unless you are traveling from Pingding. But that is only going to be a temporary problem, as Li-Ning announced Wednesday that it expects to have Dwayne Wade’s new signature line of sneakers available in U.S. retail outlets in the first quarter
The folks from Li Ning took care of me over the All-Star weekend, inviting me to their midnight-to-sunrise party (I was too old and too jet-lagged to attend) and their annual media basketball game, where I avoided a trillion in the box score by grabbing two rebounds and shooting 0-for-1 in limited minutes. Li Ning is now moving into the U.S. retail market by selling their shoes online rather than in sporting goods stores, and they have offered up a pair