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SHOES + NEWS
Tiger Has Girls, Gilbert Has Guns
words_Nick Engvall
It seems you can’t turn on the TV or visit any internet news site without seeing news about Tiger Woods or Gilbert Arenas right now. These two athletes have both taken questionable paths in the past couple months, with Tiger finally getting caught up with his enjoyment of women, and Gilbert Arenas getting caught up in a gun case. Sitting back and watching the stories unveil has been overly boring, yet also intriguing thanks to the complete opposite approach that each has taken towards handling their situation. Being that sneakers are always on my brain, I can’t help but wonder how the sneaker community views the off-court/off-course actions of these two super stars.
Personally, off-court actions have always heavily influenced who I am a fan of. With that being said though, even the Greatest of All Time (on and off the court in my opinion), Michael Jordan went through a cheating/divorce scandal in his final years with the Washington Wizards. I still consider him a role model, and I obviously still buy his shoes. I think it’s safe to say that a majority of the sneaker community would not think twice about Michael’s infidelities when purchasing their next pair of Air Jordans. The same can obviously be said about Kobe Bryant, who dealt with his scandal in a “killed it with the blindness of bling” approach. Since then, his game and footwear followers have steadily increased. In fact, he has probably seen the greatest increase in sneaker buyers in the last half decade.
Since Tiger Woods doesn’t really have a signature shoe available that appeals to people outside the fairways, it’s all speculation as to if sneakerheads would stop buying his shoes or not. Some of his sponsors seem to think he has lost his appeal, as AT&T recently became the third sponsor to drop Tiger’s contract since his car accident that landed him on all the headlines. Michael and Kobe made it through their scandals with their endorsement money still in hand. So if history repeats itself, Tiger won’t have to worry about Nike dropping him from his endorsement deal as long as he makes it back onto the links sometime in the not-so-distant future. Michael and Kobe addressed the public and owned up to the responsibilities of being role models that comes with being a professional athlete. It’s possible that Tiger’s stone-faced, one and done acknowledgment approach might be hurting his reputation though.
Gilbert Arenas, has taken a completely different approach to his situation, using Twitter to poke fun at the situation, and also apologize to his fans. Since Arenas has just recently been indefinitely suspended for pulling guns on teammate Javaris Crittenton in the Wizards locker room, the repercussions haven’t really been felt. Ironically, David Stern didn’t seem to have a problem with the gun incident until Gilbert, trying to make light of his situation, was seen pointing his fingers at his teammates during warm-ups.
Gilbert’s efforts in reaching out to his fans through Twitter were entertaining to say the least, to the sneakerheads and journalists that I follow that also follow Arenas that is. Personally I didn’t think it was very smart, but he was funny. He must have run out of John Wayne jokes though because his account was recently shut down. Arenas had the foreshadowing down perfectly when he tweeted “they say bad decisions make for great stories…only true if u dont take urself too serious.” His lightheartedness seemed to help keep his followers, myself included, from thinking about how unintelligent his actions were.
Whether or not Arenas’ endorsement deal with adidas changes is still unknown, as is his return to the league, but it’s hard to imagine that it would be affected by his pending gun charges. Somehow sneaker endorsements often times seem to slide through the cracks of the chaos of scandals and we still buy our favorite stars’ signature sneaker. Perhaps it is because of the close tie to the fashion or streetwear cultures, that makes it an exception. Maybe there is something that puts basketball stars’ sneaker endorsements on a higher level of leniency than other endorsements. One thing is for sure, I’m thankful MJ and Kobe didn’t lose their endorsement deals, and as long as the shoes perform on the court, I don’t see myself cutting back on any of my favorite players sneakers in the future.
Is there anything an athlete could do in their personal life that would make you consider not buying their sneakers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
Tags: Gilbert Arenas, Tiger Woods
14 Responses to “Tiger Has Girls, Gilbert Has Guns”
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I have to agree that Tiger is hurting his image even more by not talking about it. I think this would not be such a scandal if he would have gone public and apologized. Reality is, that is what people are waiting for and the longer he waits the more questions of why he waited so long will come. Nonetheless, Michael’s and Kobe’s transgressions in my opinion in terms of of being unfaithful don’t compare to Tiger’s. Yes Kobe was accused of committing a serious crime but it eventually was dropped and questioned when the girl showed up with semen of multiple men on her underwear. Tiger just goes beyond, what with Kobe and Michael was just 1 woman but to be unfaithful to your wife not with 1 but with over a dozen women, is beyond me. To cheat on your wife is being straight up disrespectful, to cheat on her with over 12, I don’t even know what that is called. As a teacher I also must say, no athlete should be considered a role model. Young people should aspire to get an education not to be the next Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James or T. Woods…when are young people going to learn that there are less than 300 jobs in the NBA, under 1000 in the NFL, a handful in golf, etc.
I tend to look at people as what they are…people. When an athlete does something wrong it’s always blown up and makes headlines. When the fact is that it happens everyday. Needless to say I don’t condone such actions as pulling guns on people or cheating on ones spouse but again it happens.
As a christian I try to look for the best in people and realize that everybody has made their mistakes and will continue to make more as time goes on. Myself included.
I don’t believe that off court /course discretions will keep me from buying signature shoes. Like with Jordan and his divorce issue. I have a closet full of Jordans. His personal life was none of my business. Again, I don’t condone such behavior but his product served a purpose. His shoes fit my feet well and give support where others I have tried don’t offer as much comfort.
And I believe it must be said that even though I respected his prowess and skills as an assassin on the court he was never my role model. When people put others on pedestals they set themselves up for failure. Not one is above reproach at every moment of their lives. To believe otherwise is a bit naive.
Well said Lem
This is actually something that I’ve recently been struggling with…
I honestly am not a Kobe Bryant fan, mainly because of his personality. I’m not saying I know the guy or anything; my opinion is based on the things I read about him, the way he carries himself, and my many encounters with him at NBA arenas. Of course, his “bling” scandal didn’t help either. Because of this, I was naturally deterred from buying ANYTHING with Kobe’s logo on it. Even with the great success of the Kobe IV’s, I still don’t own a single pair, and even toyed with the idea of creating a Rockets-inspired colorway on NikeID with “KOBEHATER” stitched on the side (which I regret not doing, since they’re no longer available on NikeID).
The great irony here is that the best players get the best shoes, and Eric Avar really created a beautiful shoe in the Kobe IV that performs very well (or so I hear…).
So when the “Chaos” Kobe V released, along with internet photos of the upcoming “Dark Knight” and “Bruce Lee” colorways, a funny thing happened. The sneakerhead in me took over. I just had to have them. They were beautiful enough for me to look past my opinions of Kobe, and I ultimately couldn’t resist buying a pair of Chaos Kobe V’s. It’s bittersweet though… every time I look at them, I get the same rush of excitement that every other sneakerhead gets when looking at an amazing shoe, but it’s tainted by a reminder that they’re endorsed by the NBA superstar I care for the least.
What does all of this mean? I have no idea. But I can’t be the only one experiencing this conflict. As far as I’m concerned, I bought a pair of “Chaos” Eric Avar’s.
Well said brother! Those Kobe IV ID’s would’ve been classic! Don’t pass that up if it rolls around again!
I see what you’re talking about and regarding personally, I just look past the name on the shoe if I like the shoe. Even with some of these dudes doing some dumb stuff, would I buy the product? If I like it, yes. Honestly, even though I feel Tiger has done one of the worse things somebody can do to a person they love, supposedly, if I golf’ed, which I don’t, I would wear some of the Tiger Wood’s gear that I like. As a sneakerhead, granted a Kobe-head too, we sometimes do need to and maybe always should, step away from the name on the shoe and simply buy on the fact that we like them, whether Jordan’s, Kobe’s, LeBron’s, Gil’s, etc.
I’m not going to lie I lost a lot of respect for Kobe when the allegations came out, and well to this day, he has not gained back all the respect I once had for him. To me the act of cheating is the worse thing you can do the woman you love, and you shouldn’t be excused from it because of who you are or what size the bank account or the ring is. Although still my favorite player and by far one of the best if not the best on court, and yes has gained my full respect again for his on-court ability, the respect I had for him off the court, or at least what we saw, isn’t all back and I don’t think it will ever be.
Who cares what they do in their personal life if u like the product buy it.
I had the same feeling when I saw Chamillionaire’s video about his encounter with Michael Jordan.
I think there both fucking idiot dumb fucks y the fuck would u bring a gun into the arena n then play with the shit wow gilbert
And Tiger y the fuck wud u get married if u knw u had tht problem shuda stayed single and fucked random bitches n married one of them when u cudnt fuck nomore use common sense you guys u cnt go wrong with tht
none of you guys take 5 seconds to stop thinking about shoes. nike dropping tiger is the least of his worries right now. he doesnt care about saving endorsements by making public appearances. its his life and he’s stopping everything with his wife and his wife only. fixing his family comes before endorsements or fans and i commend him for that
When MJ got busted, it confirmed years of rumors that he was running around on Juanita. He was linked to Janet Jackson, Vanessa Williams, and tons of no-name dimes for years. When he didn’t pay that hush money to that woman, she came forward. After that happened, some other women came forward too. MJ probably had as many regular side-breezies as Tiger.
do either of these guy have shoes you wear? If not who cares……….Tiger got caught with women………gilbert got a gun(thinking bout the song lol) but again who care no money out of their pockets or yours
wtf, how the hells is mj gonna lose his endorsement? doesnt the motherfucker own his own company…nike is not dumb
wat any ass