[Si] TV

With his in-your-face style of play, Gilbert Arenas has become one of the NBA's elite players. What? You thought Adidas hands out multi-million dollar shoe deals to scrubs. Arenas' first signature shoe, Gil Zero, was such a success that Adidas launched a huge campaign for the release of his second shoe. With 20 releases throughout this NBA season, Gil II Zero is potentially the biggest campaign for the second offering of a signature shoe ever. Themes for releases include Looney Tunes, Three Zero (an Asian toy designer company), and even Benihana for Arenas' love of stir fry and his battle cry--hibachi! Unfortunately, Agent Zero has had an injury-plagued season; even so he continues to support his Wizard teammates as they try to clinch a playoff berth. Si Entertainment spoke to Arenas about his sneaker line and his affinity for anything that squeaks on the basketball court.

Si Ent.: How did the decision to drop 20 different colorways for the Gil II Zero come about?
Gilbert Arenas: After I released my first shoe there was a big buzz around it and people wanted it. Eastbay picked it up so I needed something for my second shoe to catch everybody's attention. So when Adidas came up with the concept, the original idea was to create 82 shoes; 82 colors for every game of the season with just one shoe coming out. Then they came back and said, "OK we'll come up with 20 different colors," and I said, "How about 20 different colors that drop in 20 different cities?"

Si Ent.: How much design influence did you have in making the shoe?
GA: A lot because when I first got the original shoe I thought it was hideous. I told them, "I need my shoe to look more like a walking shoe. I need it to look like a street shoe." People like basketball shoes but they don't really sell like that. Like Jordans, I used to look at Jordan's shoes like, "Why does this shoe sell?" It's because you can wear it like tennis shoes and I guess that was his concept; I never talked to him about it. But when you look at his shoes, you can wear it like tennis shoes and that's what people liked about them; if I'm done playing basketball I can walk down the street in them.

Si Ent.: Growing up in Cali, what did you play ball in and overall what were the styles like?
GA: We were smooth; you know trying to wear Chuck Taylors and playing smooth. That's until they start hurting your feet (laughs). You know other than that we just bought Jordans. I always played in running shoes, so I played in the Air Max ‘95s all the time. We tried to find all the different colors nobody knew about and play in those. But as soon as Jordans came out we were at the store.

Si Ent.: You tend to throw your jersey into the stands at the end of games and you've thrown your shoes out as well. Is that something you are going continue to do?
GA: Yeah, that's my legacy. When I leave this league I don't wanna be known as the guy who made the All-Star team eight times or whatever. I want people to be like, "He gave back to everybody. He made kids believe that they can be like him."

Si Ent.: Speaking of giving back, tell us about your charity Zero to Hero? 
GA: Zero to Hero is a foundation that I came up with that says if you can be a zero, [you can] then become a hero in everybody's eyes. I don't have a specific group of kids; I just wanted to help people. Anyone who needed help at the time is who I was helping. Right now I'm focusing more on kids, so we're doing Scores for Schools. Every point I score, I give back $100 to the school that was designated to that day.

Check out the full interview in the new issue of Kicksclusive Magazine at a sneaker boutique near you.