10 Great Athletes Who Never Were Given Their Own Signature Line of Kicks
Having your own signature sneaker is one sign you made it. Following Michael Jordan’s lead, signature shoes have been developed to enhance the popularity and scope of an athlete.
Countless athletes have received signature lines. Human dynamo’s like LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant first come to mind. But even crossing over to different sports gave consumers Ken Griffey Jr.’s own Nike effort as well as Victor Cruz’s latest endeavor in 2015.
Sneaker lines aren’t handed out to everyone. Sports have seen some of its tallest fixtures receive very few signature kicks or none at all.
Filtering out some of the greatest athletes of all time, here’s a list of names who never received a signature line to thrive in.
Tim Duncan
1 of 10
The mystery of big men in the NBA and signature shoes has been a long debated issue. Even basketball’s premier centers and power forwards had one, maybe two, lasting shoes—think back on Shaquille O’Neal’s Reebok line.
Tim Duncan was a guy who never got a fair shake at developing a proper sneaker line despite wearing a great deal of exemplary kicks over his career, as Sole Collector touched on.
Full disclosure, Duncan did have a few exclusive releases between his Nike and Adidas deals.
The issue with the long-time Spurs forward was his kicks were never properly fleshed out. You look at a sneaker like the Nike Air Max Duncan or Air Max Duncan 2 and see products that could have been sculpted into a really dope series of shoes.
Instead, his departure for the Three Stripe regime in 2003 turned Duncan’s sneaker empire into nothing more than a footnote in NBA history. It’s really a shame considering how influential and prominent a figure Duncan has been for nearly 20 years.
Serena Williams
2 of 10
How does Serena Williams not have her own signature shoe at this point in her career? Despite being at the top of her sport for years, Williams has also embarked on fashionable endeavors off the court, including a collection she put on display during 2015 Fashion Week.
The market is primed for a simplistic tennis shoe that could mirror as a runner. Think about the Adidas Ultra Boost or Nike Flyknit Racer.
It’s an easy transition. And Williams doesn’t have that far to go, considering she’s already worked on a personal shoe with Nike designer Aaron Cooper, per Juan Martinez of Kicks on Fire.
But as Martinez pointed out, naming a shoe the Nike Air Generation is a complete 360-degree way of thinking rather than tagging Williams’ name alongside the product.
Nike has to realize that she deserves her own in-depth signature line. Williams is a global icon who could carve out a crater-sized lane within the sneaker industry.
Joe Dumars
3 of 10
The Bad Boys who roamed Detroit forged an identity that can never be questioned. Along with Bill Laimbeer and Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars became a centerpiece of the Pistons' roster.
Thomas was lucky enough to receive a few of his own signature kicks courtesy of Asics, but Dumars never received the same luxury.
Dumars was an Adidas guy. The Hall of Famer even wore the Adidas Torsion Artillery when he was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 1989, according to Complex’s Gurvinder Singh Gandu.
To not have your own shoe and be part of the Bad Boys is a crime. In fact, there should be no statute of limitations for the offense. Adidas should pony up and give Dumars his own commemorative sneaker sometime in the near future.
Dumars—like most guys on this list—deserved better in terms of the signature shoe department.
John Stockton
4 of 10
Another excellent point guard that never received his own signature sneaker line was John Stockton. Besides that fact that Stockton looked like a 48-year-old father of three on the court, he was prominent enough of a figure to warrant a collection.
Stockton broke barriers with his sneaker choices. He famously wore a Nike tennis shoe—Andre Agassi’s signature Nike Air Zoom Challenge—during his NBA career, per Complex’s Riley Jones. Stuff like that was pretty unheard of at the time.
Nike could have taken the lead and built a sneaker that crossed over into both worlds, allowing Stockton to not only have his own line, but one that would be revered among sneakerheads.
Barry Sanders
5 of 10
Bo Jackson represented a change in direction for the signature shoe market. Deion Sanders followed, as well as Ken Griffey Jr. But one athlete who missed out on having his own line of kicks was the incomparable Barry Sanders.
Sanders’ unparalleled combination of speed and agility made the Detroit Lions running back into a human version of must-watch TV.
One singular piece of sneaker treatment Sanders’ received during his Nike endorsement days was the Nike Zoom Turf. Shaped as a classic ‘90s trainer, the shoe was a preview of what Sanders’ line could have looked like had Nike given him a proper rollout.
Sanders not getting his own line could have been a product of the times. Considering today’s sneaker industry is booming, as Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes reported in 2015, brand's logically have the luxury of taking more chances on shoe deals.
We’ll never know what could have been with Sanders, and that’s the most frustrating part of all.
Larry Bird
6 of 10
Larry Bird had a deep run with Converse during his playing days. Despite all of his efforts for the brand, Bird never really received the opportunity to host his own signature sneaker. Yet, the company’s Converse Weapon model became attached to Bird’s name as well as Magic Johnson.
You would think the realization of the Air Jordan I in 1985 would have set off a firestorm of signature shoes. Not the case. Bird was a generational talent who fell short of having his own line of kicks.
Whether shoes labeled with Bird's name came by way of Converse or even a brand like Nike, Larry Legend’s lack of signature kicks remains a disheartening time in sneaker history.
John Starks
7 of 10
New York basketball was a mecca of hard work and explosive Eastern Conference moments during the 1990s. As an undrafted signee to the Knicks, no one represented Madison Square Garden better than John Starks.
Starks was an Adidas man, as Andrew Greif’s Complex article a few years back pointed out. Before the Three Stripe Empire had Derrick Rose, Damian Lillard and Andrew Wiggins, Starks was on the payroll.
Besides wearing a handful of vintage silhouettes, Starks never got his chance at developing his own line with the brand.
It was a missed opportunity to say the least. Starks remains a legend of New York City basketball, setting the Garden on fire with countless heroic performances throughout his eight-year career with the team.
Jerry Rice
8 of 10
Nike decided the best way to provide athletes outside of basketball with their own “signature” shoe would be to give certain guys their own set of trainers—we touched on Barry Sanders’ version earlier.
Jerry Rice also was honored with a trainer in 1997 titled the Nike Air Ubiquitous Max, per Gurvinder Singh Gandu of Complex.
Rice remains the greatest NFL wide receiver to ever play the sport. Twelve years after he retired, he's still ranked No. 1 in receiving yards, touchdowns and receptions.
No. 80 played during a time when signature lines weren’t usually handed out to non-basketball entities. But that doesn’t excuse Nike for its behavior. Rice was arguably the biggest star in the sport and an athlete people to this day are forced to stack up to.
Without a consistent signature offering from Rice, the world was deprived of a series of innovative training shoes that could have helped enhance his brand off the gridiron.
Steve Nash
9 of 10
Steve Nash’s sneaker career spins sort of a bizarre narrative. He was a longtime Nike guy before switching over to the Chinese apparel company Luyou in 2011, per Brandon Richard of Sole Collector.
The two-time MVP was given his own signature shoe courtesy of Luyou but he chose not to wear it. Nash would continue to wear Nike shoes—including the Kobe 8 during his brief stint in Los Angeles—without ever putting the finishes touches on a proper line.
Pushing a player exclusive sneaker aside, Nash was a huge part of the NBA for a long time. To this day he is remembered as an innovative point guard who snatched two MVP awards throughout an 18-season career.
Not having a handful of signature shoes or even a fleshed out line was weird. Especially when you consider Nike had the engineering chance to fuse his love of soccer with his passion for basketball.
Darrell Green
10 of 10
Hall of Fame cornerback Darrell Green wasn't only a visionary at the position. Green also doubled-down as the fastest player in league history—NFL Films placed him No. 1 on its list in 2015.
With Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson—two notorious speedsters—gaining traction in the sneaker world during the 1990s, Green seemed like a logical choice to include. He was fast, had the name recognition and was headed for Canton.
A signature shoe, let alone trainer, never came to fruition. It especially hurts considering Green was a marketing dream. As the NFL Films video mentioned, he would play with a Tootsie Roll nestled comfortably in his sock.
How does a guy with that much skill, speed and personality not have his own sneaker? The answer is, times were different. If modern-day cornerbacks like Darrelle Revis receive a shoe, Green getting one makes sense too.
The industry is constantly evolving and like most of the names mentioned, Green would have been an excellent addition to the signature sneaker family.
All Nike/Jordan product information via News.Nike.com unless noted otherwise. All Adidas information via News.Adidas.com unless noted otherwise.
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