Alright, so I’ve been meaning to share this little investigation I did. It’s about Patrick Ewing and Adidas sneakers. Yeah, you heard that right, Adidas. Not the massive Ewing Athletics kicks that everyone instantly pictures. I was specifically trying to figure out the deal with him and Adidas.
It all started because I had this nagging thought, like a half-remembered dream, of Ewing in the three stripes. Most folks, you say Ewing sneakers, they go straight to his own brand. And fair enough, those shoes were iconic. But my brain kept saying, “Adidas, Adidas, Adidas.” So, I decided, right, I’m gonna get to the bottom of this. This was my little project for a bit.
So, what did I do? Well, I hit the internet, obviously. Started typing in all sorts of combinations: “Patrick Ewing Adidas,” “Ewing Adidas signature,” “Did Ewing wear Adidas.” You know the drill. And let me tell you, it wasn’t like some super clear, easy answer just popped up. It was a bit of a dig. You get a lot of noise, a lot of stuff about his own brand, which, yeah, we know.
My process, if you can call it that, was pretty straightforward but took some patience.
I started sifting through old photos. We’re talking grainy game shots from the 80s. Then I dived into some old sneaker forums. You’d be surprised what dedicated sneakerheads keep records of. It’s like an archive of cool. I was looking for concrete proof, you know, not just hearsay.
And here’s what I pieced together. Yes, Patrick Ewing absolutely did wear Adidas. This was back in his Georgetown days, the Hoyas era. He was a beast then, and Adidas had him laced up. He continued wearing Adidas when he first got into the NBA with the New York Knicks. I saw him in models like the Adidas Attitude and the Adidas Conductor. Those were big basketball shoes back then, worn by a lot of top players.
But here’s the thing, and this is where it gets interesting. He didn’t have a massive, widely known signature line with Adidas in the same way Jordan did with Nike, or even like his own later Ewing Athletics line. It was more like he was an Adidas athlete wearing their top-tier basketball gear of the time.
Then, of course, he went off and launched Ewing Athletics in 1989. And that’s when his own signature shoes, like the 33 HI, just exploded. Those became his shoes, the ones that defined his sneaker legacy. So, the Adidas chapter was real, but it was kind of a prelude.
- First step: Basic online searches. Got a lot of mixed results.
- Second step: Deep dive into photo archives and old news snippets. This was key.
- Third step: Checking out dedicated sneaker communities. They often have the deep lore.
- Finally: Putting the timeline together. College, early NBA – Adidas. Then, boom, Ewing Athletics.
It’s funny, this whole thing reminded me of when I was trying to find an old, specific comic book from my childhood. I remembered the cover art vividly, but not the title or publisher. I spent ages describing it to people, searching vague terms online. Then, one day, I stumbled on a fan wiki, and there it was. That same feeling of “Aha! So that was it!”
So, the Patrick Ewing Adidas story isn’t a myth. It happened. It’s just that his own brand became so dominant that it kind of overshadowed his earlier sneaker history for many people. It was a good bit of digging, and kinda satisfying to piece it all together. Just goes to show, there’s always a bit more to the story if you’re willing to look.
