NBA icon Patrick Ewing was a force on the basketball court throughout the mid-’80s and mid-’90s, and he became a superstar as a member of the New York Knicks. At the same time, hip-hop was in its golden era and the Big Apple reigned supreme.
So it should come as no surprise that the top rap artists of the moment were wearing shoes from the baller’s brand, Ewing Athletics, which he launched in 1989. Specifically, the 33 Hi silhouette that originally debuted in 1989 became a favorite.
“Eric B and Rakim wore the 33 Hi, Run-DMC wore the 33 Hi — there’s a vinyl single cover [‘Faces’/’Back From Hell (Remix)’] with them wearing the shoe,” recalled David Goldberg, president and owner of GPF Footwear LLC, the licensee of Ewing Athletics.
The original Ewing Athletics era came to an end in 1996 after the brand filed a lawsuit against distributor Next Sports Inc., and Goldberg relaunched the brand in 2012.
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Though Ewing Athletics was out of the public eye for more than a decade, the love for the brand’s shoes hadn’t waned — especially within the world of hip-hop.
“Since we brought the brand back, we’ve received so much love from the hip-hop community and so many artists are wearing it,” Goldberg said.
This adoration presented Ewing Athletics with opportunities, specifically sneaker collaborations. One of its first hits came in 2015, when Ewing Athletics teamed up with Fabolous and Teyana Taylor on the “Fame & War” collection, which featured two iterations of the 33 Hi.
From there, Ewing Athletics grabbed headlines for its 33 Hi collaboration with 2 Chainz in March 2017, followed by a 33 Hi with Rick Ross in December.
Goldberg said the Ewing Athletics sweet spot isn’t working with the rappers of the moment. Instead, the icons who reigned supreme in previous eras have served as the ideal partners.
“Doing a rapper shoe had become almost cliche. Whatever rapper is the big star, a brand was going to throw a bag at them to do a shoe, not because it made sense with the brand but because they wanted the marketing exposure. So we started doing [collabs] on more of an underground level, the true aficionado of hip-hop,” Goldberg explained.
Since entering the collaboration space, Ewing Athletics has worked with an array of New York hip-hop legends, a list that includes Cormega, AZ, the late Big L, Main Source, Onyx and EPMD, among others.
“The shoe was big in New York, it was big in the hip-hop crowd, so when we do these collabs, it’s us paying homage — and it’s never forced because the artists we’ve worked with wore the shoe or are connected to it somehow,” said Ewing Athletics product line manager Jonas Guerrero. “Us working with these artists is like us preserving legacy. Every time we drop a sneaker that commemorates an album, it’s bringing eyes and attention to that album, to that artist.”
These collaborations, Goldberg explained, provide differentiation to the broader sneaker marketplace.
“This is something where the shared fan of the artist and the brand is going to say, ‘This is dope. I’m going to buy this because this is something really dope to have,'” Goldberg said. “Seeing how many people supported these projects was a really good feeling. That’s when I realized this is an untapped lane. We’re never going to be able to compete with the big brands with a budget for the hottest rappers selling millions of records, but we can do shoes with legends from past eras, and people are going to understand why we’re doing shoes with them.”
For Goldberg, the stories from artists who loved Ewing Athletics growing up resonate with him the most — specifically, the stories of Rakim and the late Big Pun.
“We did a shoe with Big Pun’s family. What was crazy is Pun’s wife told me, ‘He would have liked it because he wore Ewings.’ Then I found a picture of him wearing the 33 Hi. That was dope to me,” Goldberg said. “Same thing with Rakim. I have a ton of pictures of Rakim wearing the 33 Hi and when we approached him about a collaboration, he was like, ‘I used to wear these heavy.'”
These collaborations have been important to the brand’s sales growth. Ewing Athletics confirmed it has experienced consistent double-digit gains in recent years, all while taking a conservative approach to opportunities in order to ensure it can remain a niche brand.
In terms of retail strategy, Ewing Athletics is strictly direct-to-consumer in the U.S. via Ewingathletics.com, with distribution through Zalando and Snipes in Europe. In Latin America, the brand is sold at Pimps (Chile) and at the NBA Store and ShelfLife in South Africa.
Looking ahead, Ewing Athletics will deliver a second collaboration with Rakim. The 33 Hi — inspired by the classic Eric B. & Rakim album “Follow the Leader” — will arrive on Aug. 11, the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.
Ewing Athletics also is prepping collaborations with Sugar Hill Gang and Common. The Sugar Hill Gang shoe will arrive “within a few weeks,” according to the brand, and the Common sneaker — inspired by his debut album, “Can I Borrow a Dollar?” — will debut in December. And in January 2024, Ewing will release a collaboration with Yandel, its first with a Spanish-speaking artist.
And the brand has no plans on slowing down on the collabs.
“We will continue to approach our hip-hop collaborations with the same attention to detail and reverence that our consumers have come to expect. We love being able to tell the story of hip-hop through the footwear lens,” Guerrero said. “Our strategy going forward will be to work with a newer generation of artists in different genres of music to help authentically tell their story.”
