Back in late August, news broke that this year’s #2 overall pick and former NCAA Player of the Year Evan Turner had signed a long term deal with Chinese shoe company Li-Ning. If you remember, Li-Ning is the up-and-coming athletic apparel company focusing mainly on basketball shoes, who at first used Clippers guard Baron Davis in a viral marketing campaign which included giving the former NBA All Star his own signature shoe, appropriately named the “Boom Dizzle.”
Li-Ning since has also signed a few other NBA players to sport their shoes during games like Shaquille O’Neal, Damon Jones, Jose Calderon, Chuck Hayes, Turner, and since 2004 has equipped the Spanish National Team in international competition. They opened their first retail store in the United States in early 2010 in Portland, Oregon.
It’s now apparently Turner’s turn as details of his long term deal are still not available but rumor has it that he was supposed to join Davis in getting his very own signature shoe in the 2nd year of the deal. Even though the Sixers guard hasn’t exactly produced as advertised so far this season(7.2 ppg, 4.2 reb, 1,8 ast), Li-Ning has decided to jump the gun so to speak by designing Turner’s own shoe called the “Brassmonkey.”
The stylish shoe is clad in a grey and black with a shiny exterior and Li-Ning’s trademark upside down swoop symbol proudly displayed along the full side of the shoe and is deemed a 2011 All Star edition since Turner will be competing in the Rookie-Sophomore game during All Star weekend and will continue to wear the shoe throughout the 2nd half of the season. The shoe’s name “Brassmonkey” supposedly was inspired by the old Beastie Boys song of the same name.
Check out some pics of Evan Turner’s new signature shoe – Brassmonkey:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
