Throughout the sneaker industry in recent years, there’s been a growing trend of themed and storytelling colors. Some special edition signature sneakers can take inspiration from something as simple as a player’s favorite movie, college uniform colors or his most recent car.

For retired Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing, he’s been releasing retro sneakers of his ’90s classics through his Ewing Athletics brand for the past four years. Typically, Ewing Athletics president Dave Goldberg will come to him with different themes and ideas for upcoming launches. This weekend’s release, however, was Ewing’s idea and holds an extremely personal meaning.

“My two older sisters had breast cancer, and my second-oldest sister passed away of it 10 years ago,” Ewing told The Vertical. “When I was talking to Dave, I told him, ‘I’d like to come out with a breast cancer shoe, in honor of my sister, Pauline.’ We sat down and talked about it, and we agreed that most of the proceeds should go to breast cancer research. I just thought it was a great idea.”

The shoe is bright and vivid, with a stark pink upper throughout the “Ewing 33 Hi” to highlight the official color of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month throughout October. The shoe was designed in conjunction with the National Breast Cancer Foundation and features official pink ribbon icons along both the tongue and heel. Proceeds from the sneaker’s sales will benefit the organization’s ongoing research efforts. The shoes represent one of the many ways in which Ewing, 54, is still involved and engaged in his footwear brand after it began with a cult following during his playing days.

The “Ewing 33 Hi” highlights the official color of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. (Special to Yahoo Sports) More

Building the brand

While Ewing has enjoyed brand ownership – a rarity for an NBA player – that wasn’t initially the case. He first signed a traditional shoe endorsement deal after being selected No. 1 overall in the 1985 NBA draft.

“When Patrick was coming out of Georgetown, we signed with adidas,” said his agent, David Falk. “It was an enormous deal, the largest shoe deal ever for a basketball player [at the time]. It was over a million dollars a year.”

Falk, who negotiated Michael Jordan’s then-record $500,000 deal with Nike the year before, knew the impact Ewing could have. Not only was the decorated Georgetown center considered an instant franchise savior, but he was also playing in the league’s biggest market with the Knicks.

“Back then, you had New York, Chicago and L.A. as the three top markets,” Falk said. “Back then, only superstars had their own shoe. Before the age of social media, it really took being an iconic superstar in a major market to be able to drive sales. Patrick was an iconic superstar since the time he was in high school.”

Just three years into Ewing’s adidas deal, and after enjoying some success with his Metro Attitude sneaker, the brand went through a rough patch across several categories. It struggled to recover from the 1987 death of Horst Dassler, the company founder’s son who had been leading the brand. Soon after, the company was put up for sale.

“Adidas said they needed to buy out Patrick and just couldn’t make it work,” Falk said. “It was a disappointment.”

While he had worn Nike in college, and several other brands were also gaining traction in the basketball industry, Falk had bigger ideas. He called Roberto Mueller, the founder of footwear brand Pony. Only Falk had no interest in a Pony deal.

“Can you make me Patrick’s exact shoe, all in white, with no logos?” Falk asked. “He goes, ‘Well, of course. They’re all made in the same factory.’ ”

With a new season looming and Ewing without a shoe deal, Falk looked to cause a stir. “I just thought that we had to do something different with him down the road, but we didn’t know what yet, so we wanted to create an aura of mystery,” he says. “I wanted everyone in the Garden to wonder, ‘What the hell is Patrick wearing?’ ”

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