When Shaquille O'Neal chose fans over fortune to create affordable sneakers

Shaquille O'Neal is a living legend – and this goes well beyond his coveted NBA career, where he was known as one of the most ferocious and dominant competitors the league has ever seen.

O'Neal, commonly known as Shaq, has earned a reputation as an all-round good guy, thanks to his positive outlook, humble nature, and philanthropy.

Today, we're gonna look back at a time when Shaq leaned into his moral compass in favour of making an obscene amount of money for himself – and a corporate sponsor. This is the story of when Shaquille O'Neal turned his back on Reebok to put families first.

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It all started back in 1992 when a very young and very promising Shaquille O'Neal arrived in the NBA, where he joined the Orlando Magic as the team's number-one draft pick.

Nike and Reebok, two of the sports world's most influential firms at the time, wanted the future NBA star on their sponsorship roasters. But Nike took the first steps to close a deal with Shaquille O'Neal and set up a meeting before Reebok had their chance.

In that meeting, Shaq asked Nike for his own line of sneakers. But the company denied his request since they had just signed a sneaker deal with Alonzo Mourning. So Shaq took a meeting with Reebok where his request for a sneaker line was met by more receptive ears.

Reebok not only guaranteed Shaq his own line of sneakers but the company also gave him complete creative control of the project. The result was a huge success, anyone who was alive during the early-1990s would remember Reebok's Shaq Attaq shoes with their inflatable tongues and catchy marketing.

From 1992 to 1998, Reebok released six Shaq models, every one of which sold out and earned the company millions of dollars in sales. But everything changed when Shaquille O'Neal crossed paths with an unhappy mother.

The Orlando center was leaving the Magic's Arena one day when a mother, with her son in tow, scolded Shaq for selling his Reebok sneakers at such a high price.

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Shaquille O'Neal responded by offering the woman $2,000 (£1,505, €1,792), but she refused it and slapped Shaq's hand away, an injury that would do more damage to his soul than to his giant hand, as told by Black Enterprise.

It was at that moment that Shaquille O'Neal realized that not every family could spend $150 (£112, €134) or more on a pair of sneakers, so he looked for a solution.

The first step was to break his agreement with Reebok, reportedly worth $40 million (£30m, 35m) US according to the New York Post, and create his own line of sneakers, but where could he sell them? The answer was simpler than expected: at Walmart.

Walmart readily agreed to Shaq's proposal and for more than two decades Shaq-branded shoes have been sold at the retail giant for between 15 and 30 dollars, well below the price of Reebok's 1990s Shaq Attaq sneakers. Footwear News has estimated that more than 400 million pairs of sneakers have been sold at Walmart since beginning their partnership with Shaquille O'Neal.

This anecdote showed the world why Shaquille O'Neal's vision as an entrepreneur and his mentality of understanding his customers is still earning him $50 million (£37m, €44m) a year, even in his retirement.

And it is that spirit of entrepreneurship, in addition to his deal with Walmart, that has helped the former NBA star amass a business empire. Today, according to Celebrity Net Worth, Shaq has owned 155 Five Guys restaurants and owns 150 car washes, 40 24-hour gyms, a large shopping center, and several nightclubs in Las Vegas.

And that's not all, Shaq even had the vision to invest in Google back in the 90s, making it clear that the muscle that's worked best for him over the years has always been his brain.

This all accounts for his whopping net worth, which, as of September 2024, is estimated to be around $500 million (£376m, €448m) by Celebrity Net Worth.

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And of course, when you hear stories like the one about his sneakers, you can't help but be happy for Shaquille O'Neal and his success, despite the fact that he starred in the Superman spinoff 'Steel' in 1997... a film that could be a considered crime in several countries.