Zero's Back with a Brand New Edition
I know this is what a lot of people have been waiting for. For all the shoeheads out there, allow me to introduce you to the adidas GilIIZero. I was calling them the Gil 20s, because that's how it's pronounced, but when you go to buy them in the store (which I know you will) it will say GilIIZero on the box. I just wanted to clear that up so you don't get confused and think Boyz II Men has a shoe or something.
There are going to be 20 different versions of my shoe next year. Most of them are limited editions. I have 18 different color ways and then two 'inline' versions, you know, that meet all the uniform standards of David Stern and the NBA.
GilIIZero Release Dates
1 Scores for Schools Foundation Kickoff Event
That's my foundation that I have in D.C. I give $100 for every point I score at home.
2 Cust0mize vs. Warriors Nov. 23, 2007
B Diddy will like these.
3 Agent Zero vs. Cavs Dec. 5, 2007
When LeBron comes to town, my feet will be ready.
4 Vote for Gilbert vs. Suns Dec. 7, 2007
That's for Vitamin Water. It's a whole little campaign we're doing.
5 NBA LIVE 08 @ Heat Dec. 13, 2007
This is my first away shoe. Coming out right in time for the holidays. I might push the release date up though because the game comes out on October 2.
6 DC Football vs. Heat Dec. 29, 2007
That shoe is coming out on a Saturday, and it's inspired by the Redskins. That's for all the Redskins fans because they play the Cowboys on the following day, a Sunday.
7 Coke Zero @ Hawks Jan. 11, 2008
Visit Coke Rewards for details.
8 Halo @ Nuggets Feb. 8, 2008
The game is coming out on September 25, so maybe we'll move this release date up.
9 Black President @ Suns Feb. 10, 2008
I got 54 against Steve Nash last year, so you know I'm going to come out with a shoe in Phoenix.
10 Looney Tunes - BUGS @ Warriors Feb. 11, 2008
This is coming out only in kids sizes. So all infants and boys under the age of 10, this is for you. This one is for my son.
11 Looney Tunes - TWEETY @ Clippers Feb. 13, 2008
This one is also only in kids sizes and is for my daughter and other little girls.
12 SLAM Magazine @ Knicks Feb. 19, 2008
New York Citaayyy.
13 THREEZERO @ Rockets Feb. 26, 2008
This is a company that's in Asia that makes toys. So they're going to have a a 24" vinyl figure toy of me with the shoe and it's going to be released in China. So this shoe is going to come out in Houston vs. Yao.
14 Cuba @ Heat Mar. 21, 2008
I know a lot of people don't know, but I'm mixed with a little bit of Cuban, so this is for all the Cubanos. I'll also wear it in Chicago, because there are a lot of Cubans in Chicago. I don't know how, but trust me, there are.
15 Channel Zero @ Blazers Mar. 25, 2008
This is the 'Don't watch me, watch TV' shoe. Greg Oden is out, so Portland might get that taken away from them. They might get it taken away, I'm not sure. Portland fans, that's a question mark. I'm sorry. It's a nice-looking shoe too. I might have to switch it. That might become Denver with A.I. and Carmelo. We'll see.
16 Gilwood @ Lakers Mar. 30, 2008
This is the first time I'm going back to L.A. since that 60-pointer. So those colors are the Lakers colors.
17 UNDRCRWN vs. Heat April 4, 2008
Wow, four releases against the Heat. Damn. Somebody likes the Heat at adidas. Check out UNDRCRWN's home page.
18 Hibachi ??? ???
This is the Benihana collab. Time for you all to decide. Should I drop this shoe in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Memphis, Orlando or Philadelphia? Tell me what city should get it.
The Background Story
This was a concept that adidas came up with last spring after I wore a special edition shoe on a West Coast trip when I hit the game winner against Seattle. Everybody was asking me like, 'Where did you get those from?' I was like, 'Yeah, they're mine. They're a one-of-one. They're a special edition that I just have. They're not out in stores.' So I gave that pair to one of the ball kids in L.A. at the Clippers game, and that was the end of that.
I told adidas how everybody went crazy for that special pair and so we came up with the idea: 'What if we came up with the GilIIZero, where I have 20 different versions of my next shoe? You know, have them come out in different cities, have all different release dates. It's never been done before. It will be something different and let's see how people respond to it.'
Then we started to play with the idea more and we're like, 'OK, we'll make the NBA LIVE 08 and the SLAM shoes more rare than the Looney Tunes versions for the kids ' The THREEZERO shoe will be very limited ' anywhere from 200-300 pairs''
It's going to be great. I think people are going to like the colors, but they're also going to like the shoe. This is more of a casual, kicking it shoe but you can also play basketball in it, because I'm going to be doing it.
Tinkering with the Design
I don't want to kill the designer that was in charge of the shoe when this process started, because I understand it's difficult, but you know me, I'm an honest person so I'm going to tell you the truth of how it went down.
When they first showed me the shoe, we were in a room at a hotel, and they came out with the shoe. It was supposed to be a team shoe, that's why the shoe was actually called the 'TS Lightswitch Gil' (TS stands for 'Team Signature') but we switched it to GilIIZero. It was supposed to be a team shoe because we're doing a whole brotherhood campaign, so they wanted us all in the same shoe. Being a young player, I was like, 'I can understand what you guys are doing, but Kevin Garnett has already had nine signature shoes. T-Mac had nine signature shoes. I'm just now getting on the scene. Can I get my own shoe? Can I get the Gil Zero, part two?'
I don't want to be hooked up in a team shoe. For me, as a shoe kid, I'm like team shoes don't sell. To be honest. They sell to teams, but for a kid on the street, they don't want to wear something a whole UCLA or Oregon or Arizona team is wearing. Nobody wants to wear that just in different colors. So when they showed me the shoe, they told me, 'The other four players loved this shoe and this is a great shoe, the buyers are buying it.' And I'm sitting there looking at the shoe like, 'I hope you guys aren't serious. Because I'm not going to wear this shoe.' If you can picture this shoe, it looked like a newer shell toe mixed in with a little basketball and a little bit of ballerina in the front. So I looked at the shoe and I straight killed it. I killed it so much I think I made everybody uncomfortable. How do I go from the Gil Zero to this? That was my whole argument. Nobody is going to wear this shoe.
So at All-Star weekend I was actually downstairs in the lobby of my hotel with the prototype of the shoe and going up to fans and asking, 'Would you buy this shoe? Would you buy this shoe?' There were a lot of people that went, 'Eww, no. I hope you're not wearing that in the All-Star game.' I was like, 'No, I'm not going to wear this. I just wanted to get your opinion.' Point proven.
So through all that process of tearing down and getting rid of and complaining and complaining, this is what we have. Now we have the Lamborghini of shoes. Not to say Hondas are bad, but we have the Lamborghini of shoes now. I think everybody is going to dig this shoe.
Designing shoes is very hard because for some reason, as an athlete, you never meet the designer until the shoe is already made. Then you have to complain about the things you don't like. So right now, I'm complaining about my shoe for next year. We already had that meeting because they said, 'Well, if we get him early and then he kills us again, we have time.'
Sneaker Wars
I'm a trend setter, people. I don't want other shoe companies to try to jack my style now. My swag is too phenomenal. If any other basketball player out there wants to compete with my shoes, go ahead, we can have a 50 and Kanye right here. We can start it up, baby. I'll be the bad guy. We can have a sneaker war.
If you think about it, there are probably about 20-25 signature player shoes in the NBA that come out each season. Next year, I'm going to have 20 just by myself! So when all those other ugly shoes come out, you know that a new GilIIZero will be on its way shortly.
Next week is my NBA LIVE 08 blog post. I'll be in New York next week for my EA Sports press conference. I'll blog from New York.
haha Sweet oddball item mate 
