Andre Drummond always wanted a signature shoe. Instead, he got an entire brand.
The Sixers center has joined Stria Sports, a Chicago-based sneaker and apparel brand, as an investor and creative director. “This is something I want to pass down to [my kids],” he said.
Andre Drummond was in the 76ers’ locker room after shootaround on Tuesday when a couple of his younger teammates approached the center about his recent shoe deal news.
“All the young guys are already asking me for shoes like, ‘Yo, you signing guys?’” Drummond said with a laugh during a video call with The Inquirer. “I said, ‘Listen, man, I just announced it yesterday. Let me get my things in the works.’”
Drummond’s teammates were referring the Sixers center’s big news, which was announced a day earlier. The 14-year NBA veteran joined Stria Sport, a Chicago-based apparel and shoe company, as the company’s creative director and investor. Stria Sport, founded by Eric Porter in 2021, is described as an “athlete led performance, footwear, and apparel brand,” and has its roots in basketball, but has also released walking and pickleball shoes.
When his deal with the Jordan Brand was set to end two and a half years ago, Drummond, a two-time All-Star, began searching for his next move and had one goal in mind for his next sports apparel deal.
“I always had this dream in my mind of getting my signature shoe and I’m like, ‘Damn, how do I get to this goal?’ And it’s not going to get it through Nike, obviously, they have a ton of guys already. Jordan already has a ton of signature athletes already. I was with Adidas already,” Drummond explained. “I don’t think people in general understand how difficult it is to have your own signature shoe. And not only just one, having your own signature, but two, getting it to sell.”
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As Drummond scrolled social media, he noticed that his stepbrother, Xavier Rathan-Mayes, who plays professional basketball overseas, was a Stria Sport athlete and thought his shoes “were kind of cool.” He quickly sent out a message to Porter, but Drummond says the timing wasn’t yet right for a partnership.
A few months ago, Porter reconnected with Drummond to offer the Sixers’ center an opportunity to have a signature shoe and an equity stake in Stria Sport, which is also the official performance shoe for the Harlem Globetrotters’ 100th season. Drummond called the proposal “a home run.”
“We’ve been very patient on who we want to partner with,” Porter said. “We spent the last couple years really laying out our foundation of where we really want to take this thing and what is our niche. To me, we’re partnering with Andre Drummond the creative, more than just the basketball player. … Very few people make [it to] the NBA, and he’s worn all these brands. And who else would you rather get information from than someone who’s been doing this their entire life? And so it’s exciting that he gets to bring his experience with my experience, and we’re teaming up.
“This isn’t just a shoe endorsement deal or he has equity. It’s, he’s going to be overseeing everything, and that’s what he had asked. He was like, ‘I don’t want to just do my own shoe, and that’s it. He wants to be a part of it all.’”
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For Drummond, who is averaging 6.8 points and 8.6 rebounds across 46 games for the Sixers, the opportunity to be hands-on in the process of creating a signature shoes and building up the brand was a key part of joining Stria Sport. He’ll be a key decision maker for not only the brand’s basketball division, but will work directly with its pickleball players, including Gabe Tardio, the No. 1 ranked men’s doubles pickleball player in the world.
Beyond having a signature shoe, Drummond says he wants “to fully immerse myself and truly show the brand that I believe in it.”
“This is something I want to pass down to [my kids]. It’d be cool for them they play basketball to have their own shoe. Who can say that?” Drummond said. “That’s when people can go to school and say, ‘Damn, I got my own shoe. Like, my dad owns a shoe company.’ Like, that’s not normal. So for me, that’s how I envision it. I’m thinking about the later in life.
“It’s about building a community, building something that’s way bigger than the Andre Drummond brand … I’m not doing it to get fans. I’m not doing it for people to just buy my shoe. I want to build a real, organic community of people who genuinely care about what this brand is about.”
The next step for Drummond and Porter is creating a signature shoe for the 6-foot-11 center, which they say is already in “the design and development stage now.” Drummond, who will be an unrestricted free agent this year, hopes to unveil the shoe by the beginning of the next NBA season, with plans to tease the shoe throughout the summer and training camp.
There are also plans for Drummond and Porter to expand and bring on more athletes down the line, too.
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“People want to be different, and not everyone wants to wear what everyone else is wearing. And that’s where we’ve had our success,” Porter said. “The notion of being different, and having the confidence to wear something that no one else is wearing, or because we’re a smaller brand giving us a chance. We’re confident in what we’re making, I think what we have in the works right now over the next 12 months, is really exciting.
“We are going to look to grow, whether it’s bringing on more athletes, signing teams, groups. All of that is in the works.”