By Chris Chavez
August 18, 2024
100m Olympic champion Noah Lyles appeared on Shannon Sharpe and Chad Ochocinco’s “Nightcap” podcast and clarified his comments regarding Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards’ custom shoes and event with Adidas.
The Backstory
– In June, TIME published a cover story on Noah Lyles where it mentioned that he was upset with Adidas for inviting him to an event for Edwards’ signature shoe launch while he continued to push for the company to make a shoe for him.
Lyles was also in contract negotiations with Adidas and later announced an extension through the 2028 Olympics in what his management team claims is the “richest contract in the sport of track and field since the retirement of Usain Bolt.”
Here’s what Lyles told TIME: "You want to invite me to [an event for] a man who has not even been to an NBA Finals? In a sport that you don’t even care about? And you’re giving him a shoe? No disrespect: the man is an amazing athlete. He is having a heck of a year. I love that they saw the insight to give him a shoe, because they saw that he was going to be big. All I’m asking is, 'How could you not see that for me?'"
– The quote resurfaced on social media when mainstream sports media outlets noticed that Lyles did not attend an Adidas event in Paris where the brand gifted Edwards an exclusive pair of gold AE 1s to commemorate his Olympic gold medal with Team USA.
– Lyles tweeted on Aug. 12th in response to some of the social media criticism: “There is a rumor going around that I did not go to @theantedwards_ shoe release because he didn’t deserve it. That is not the case he definitely deserves his shoes he is an amazing player. The problem was finding time based on my prior engagements. Congratulations on Becoming an Olympic champion!”
Lyles Explains Why He Was Upset With Adidas
Here’s what Lyles told Sharpe and Ochocinco about not attending Edwards’ shoe event last year:
“I was in negotiations with adidas for over a year to get the contract (extension). Them offering me to go to Ant’s shoe release had nothing to do with the contract. They just thought it would be cool that I would show up as one of their adidas athletes. Unfortunately, they asked for it very late – probably two weeks in advance. I was already scheduled to walk in a Hugo Boss show in Milan, which was a day and a half before his shoe release. At first, we were trying to figure out ways that we could get there and then we figured this isn’t going to work. There was no way I was going to be able to walk and then get on a flight and then have energy enough to be able to go to this event. It wasn’t just a shoe release. They were also going to have us go to a Lil Baby concert…It was going to be a lot and I was already drained.”
– Sharpe asked for clarification on why he commented about Edwards getting his own shoe.
“I will say, being very vulnerable in this moment, I felt very unheard at that moment with adidas. I felt very unheard. What do you do when you feel unheard? You try to shout louder. I felt that I’ve had many conversations trying to shout and it hadn’t gotten through. Unfortunately, that was one of my moments where I had to shout to even get them to look my way – in that TIME article. They asked me if I wanted to take it out. I decided I was not going to. I had to stand on my decision in that moment and I had to shout to get even a conversation about what I wanted to happen or what was going on at that point to move forward. Could it be handled better? Probably. Was there more ways to do it? Probably.”
– Lyles added that he doesn’t regret not having it removed.
“I still feel that if I did not shout in that moment, I would not have the preamble to ‘Oh he is serious.’ When I said it at the Olympics, they knew it was still on my heart.”
Lyles hammered home the point in the post-race press conference at the Paris Olympics, when he said: “I want my own trainer. Dead serious. I want a sneaker. There ain’t no money in spikes. There’s money in sneakers. Even Michael Johnson didn't have his own sneaker. For how many medals we bring back, for the notoriety we get, you know, the fact that hasn’t happened, that’s crazy to me.”
Note: In 1998, Nike commemorated Johnson’s golden track spikes with the Zoom JST. The shoes were never re-released and are considered collector’s items nowadays. Usain Bolt has his own signature shoe with PUMA.
Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.
